Denmark Stands Near The Top Among The World's Least Corrupt Country

21 Dec 2013

Transparency International, the global graft watchdog said in a survey that Denmark and New Zealand are almost squeaky-clean in terms corruption while Somalia, Berlin, Afghanistan and North Korea are seen as the world’s most corrupt countries.

The Berlin-based non-profit group said that globally, around 70 per cent of the countries have a ‘serious problem’ with public servants, and out of the 177 countries surveyed this year, no country received a perfect score.

The annual list of Transparency International is the most extensively used indicator of muck in police, political parties, civil services and justice systems, a scourge which weakens development and the fight against poverty.

The group says that corruption cannot be measured meaningfully as it is secretive and illegal. Instead Transparency assembles expert views on the problem of corruption from bodies like the African Development Bank, World Bank, Bertelsmann Foundation, Freedom House, Economist Intelligence Unit and other groups.

Then, on a scale of zero to 100, the survey ranks countries where a score of 100 means a country is very clean whereas, zero means its public sector is highly corrupt.

Transparency said the latest survey paints a worrying picture and added that while a few countries perform well, no single country achieved a perfect score. Over two-thirds of the countries surveyed score less than 50.

According to Transparency International's 2013 CPI (Corruption Perceptions Index) World’s least corrupt country is Denmark, followed by New Zealand, Finland, and Sweden.

Both Denmark and New Zealand scored a 91 in the Index while both Sweden and Finland scored 89.

Other countries which scored between 80 and 89 were Canada, Luxembourg, Australia, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway and Singapore.

Denmark follows the regular Nordic welfare model that supports a ‘universalist’ welfare state aimed at encouraging social mobility and boosting individual autonomy by promoting gender equality, escalating labor force participation, redistributing wealth and providing extensive benefits.