ARMENIA SLIDES TO LOWER POSITION IN 2009 CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX, ACCORDING TO ANNUAL LIST OF TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL

Noyan Tapan
Nov 18, 2009

YEREVAN, NOVEMBER 18, NOYAN TAPAN. Out of the 180 countries on the
Transparency International’s list, the Corruption Perception Indices
(CPI) of 129 countries are lower than 5 (in a 10-point system),
Chairwoman of the Transparency International’s Armenian branch Amalia
Kostanian and Executive Director Varuzhan Hoktanian announced at
the November 17 press conference. A. Kostanian explained that CPI
is an index calculated through surveys conducted by a number of
authoritative international organizations. It shows the level of
corruption perception by citizens surveyed in the given country.

According to A. Kostanian, unstable states hit by war or an armed
conflict have the lowest CPIs. These countries are Somalia – 1.1,
Afghanistan – 1.3, Myanmar – 1.4, also Sudan and Iraq – 1.5. Among
countries with the highest indices are New Zealand- 9.4, Denmark –
9.3, Singapore and Sweden – 9.2, and Switzerland – 9.

V. Hoktanian said that Estonia with a CPI of 6.6 is the leader among
former Soviet republics. This year progress was made by Georgia
(its CPI increased from 3.9 to 4.1) and Azerbaijan (from 1.9 to 2.4).

Armenia slid to a bit lower position in its index (from 2.9 to 2.7).

In the words of V. Hoktanian, at the present time the situation
in former Soviet countries is worse than in African countries that
suffered from civil war.