Myanmar ranks 156th in transparency index
Among 175 countries included in the Corruption Perceptions Index, Myanmar is ranked the 156th – being on par with Cambodia.
According to Transparency International, which released the index earlier this month, both countries scored 21.
Among Asia Pacific nations, Myanmar is the third most corrupt nation.
The 2014 ranking showed a slight improvement from a year earlier, when the country ranked 157th out of 177 countries. In 2012, when 174 countries were included, Myanmar was ranked the 172nd, with the 15 score.
President Thein Sein vowed to fight the corruption plaguin government ministries at the ceremony in which he took an oath of allegiance on March 31, 2011.
The index ranks countries based on a 100-point “corruption perception” scale, where zero equals a “highly corrupt” perception and 100 means the country is perceived to be very clean. All the 10 countries in the box scored lower than 30. More than two thirds of the 175 countries in the 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index score below 50, on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean). Denmark comes out on top in 2014 with a score of 92 while North Korea and Somalia share last place, scoring just eight.
Corruption is considered rampant in Myanmar.
Recently, the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business conducted a transparency survey on private companies. Of all 60 companies enlisting for the transparency index, only five – led by Kanbawza (KBZ) Bank – earned enough points to pass the test. Even so, KBZ scored only 6.63 out of 10.
