Tuesday, February 2, 2021

Iraq Ranked In Bottom 10 In World In Corruption Index

(Reuters)
Iraq continues to be one of the ten most corrupt countries in the world according to the annual report by Transparency International. The group does a survey of literature and reports on countries and uses that information to create its Corruption Perceptions Index. Iraq was tied for 8th most corrupt country out of 179.

 

Out of a score of 1 to 100 with one being the worse and 100 the best Iraq had a 21. It was tied for 160 out of 179 countries included in Transparency’s Corruption Index.

 

Iraq has actually improved on the index over the last five years. In 2015 it had a score of 16, going up to 17 in 2016, 18 in both 2017 and 2018, and then 20 in 2019. That still has kept it at the bottom of the index however. It’s also not clear whether that’s because Iraq did something or whether other countries simply did worse. Libya and Syria for instance have seriously deteriorated with wars leading them to sink on the Index.

 

Iraq’s Scores On Corruption Perception Index

2020 Score 21

2019 Score 20

2018 Score 18

2017 Score 18

2016 Score 17

2015 Score 16

 

In terms of the Middle East Iraq had the fourth worst score with Syria and Yemen at the bottom with a score of 14, followed by Libya with a 17. The United Arab Emirates had the best score with a 71 and was ranked the 21st best in terms of graft by the group.

 

Corruption Scores In Middle East Worst To Best

Syria score 14 ranked 178

Yemen score 14 ranked 178

Libya score 17 ranked 173

Iraq score 21 ranked 160

Iran score 25 ranked 149

Lebanon score 25 ranked 149

Egypt score 33 ranked 117

Algeria score 36 ranked 104

Kuwait score 42 ranked 78

Bahrain score 42 ranked 78

Tunisia score 44 ranked 44

Jordan score 49 ranked 60

Saudi Arabia score 53 ranked 52

Oman score 54 ranked 49

Israel score 60 ranked 35

Qatar score 63 ranked 30

UAE score 71 ranked 21

 

Since 2003 corruption has been institutionalized in Iraq. The ruling elite use it as a means to rule. They steal from contracts and public workers, get payoffs from companies, and more. That means there is no real effort to fix the problem despite every government announcing an anti-corruption campaign. In fact officials actively block investigations into their misdeeds.

 

SOURCES

 

Transparency International, “2020 Corruption Perceptions Index,” January 2021

 

 

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