Sri Lanka ranks near the bottom of Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), with a score of 24.7 on a scale from 0 to 100, well below the global average of 48.4, according to data released this week.

The score places the country in the ‘D’ category, denoting “poor” performance in perceived government corruption.

The index, calculated by World Economics based on Transparency International’s CPI, ranks nations from A to E, with A reflecting very low levels of perceived corruption and E indicating extremely high corruption.

Sri Lanka shares its score with Togo and Uzbekistan, performing slightly better than Pakistan, which scored 18.2, but lagging behind Nepal at 27.3.

Regionally, India falls into the ‘C’ category with a score of 32.7, while several advanced economies—including the United States, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, and the United Kingdom—are rated in the top ‘A’ tier.

Globally, Denmark leads with a perfect score of 100, followed by Finland at 97.4 and Singapore at 92.2. Countries at the lowest end of the scale, in category ‘E,’ include Russia, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Myanmar.

The index is intended to measure perceptions of corruption rather than actual cases and is widely used to assess transparency and governance.

World Economics, which converted the original CPI scores into a 0–100 scale, noted that accurate corruption assessments are crucial because governments can manipulate economic and statistical data.

Such practices, including altering price indexes, suppressing statistics ahead of elections, or weakening independent agencies, can distort public policy outcomes and even pension systems.

The Transparency International data is presented in a comparative table allowing for cross-country analysis, highlighting Sri Lanka’s low ranking and underscoring the country’s ongoing challenges with transparency and accountability in government.

(Source-The Leader)