The Only Asian Nation in Top 10 Least-Corrupt Country 2019

The CPI, which started in 1995, ranks the countries by its perceived levels of public sector corruption.

Countries are then given a score from a scale of 0, for highly corrupt, to 100, for very clean.

The Republic tied the fourth spot with Sweden and Switzerland with a score of 85. Topping the list was Denmark and New Zealand - both with 87, followed by Finland in third place with a score of 86. Singapore is the only Asian country in the top 10, out of 180 countries.

The Berlin-based organisation Transparency International also noted that this year's index revealed a majority of the countries showed little to no improvement in tackling corruption. More than two-thirds of the countries scored below 50 on the index, with an average score of 43.

The United States came in with a score of 69, its lowest score in eight years. Countries ranked at the bottom of the index include Somalia, with a score of 9, as well as Syria and South Sudan with 13 and 12 respectively. In 2018, Singapore was ranked third out of 180 countries, also with a score of 85.

Other international indices have also ranked Singapore highly. The Political and Economic Risk Consultancy ranked Singapore the least corrupt country in its 2019 Report On Corruption In Asia, and in the World Justice Project Rule Of Law Index 2019, Singapore was ranked third for absence of corruption.

Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau director Denis Tang said in a statement yesterday: "While Singapore has done relatively well in the fight against corruption as attested by several international surveys, we must not allow this to lull us into a sense of complacency.

"In fact, we must work even harder to ensure that incorruptibility remains part of the DNA of every Singaporean."

Source : The New Paper