ARMENIA IMPROVES ITS RANKING IN CORRUPTION PERCEPTION INDEX

ARMENPRESS
Sept 26 2007

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 26, ARMENPRESS: Armenia has slightly improved its
ranking in the list of 180 states in the 2007 "Corruption Perceptions
Index," released Wednesday by Transparency International, a global
NGO committed to fighting corruption.

Armenia’s ranking represents a slight improvement from 2006, when it
received a score of 2.9 out of 10, as opposed to this year’s 3. The
figures were announced today in Yerevan by Amalia Kostanian, head of
Transparency International/Armenia.

She said Denmark, Finland and New Zealand tied for first place on
the list, scoring at 9.4, and Singapore and Sweden followed them at
9.3. Britain is ranked 12th and the United States 20th, with scores
of 8.4 and 7.2, respectively.

Eastern European states including Croatia, the Czech Republic,
Macedonia, and Romania also bettered their showing, which the
organization attributed to the "galvanizing effect of the European
Union accession process".

But strife-wracked states such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia and
Sudan remained stuck at the bottom of the index.

The index score relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as
seen by business people and country analysts. It ranges between zero,
which is highly corrupt, and 10, which is very clean.

Armenia’s score was taken from a combination of six surveys carried out
by experts from the Asian Development Bank, Bertelsmann Transitional
Index, the World Bank, the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, the Freedom House, the Global Insight, the International
Union of Merchants and the World Economic Forum.

The survey focuses on corruption in the public sector and among
politicians, and the organization defines corruption as "the misuse
of entrusted power for private gain."

More than half of the 180 states that were examined received scores
of three or less, which indicates that funds needed for education,
medicine and infrastructure are being pocketed by politicians.