For a second consecutive year, Kuwait dropped in a global corruption ranking assessing 180 countries, according to a leading graft watchdog. Transparency International (TI), a non-partisan global organization, released yesterday the world index that measures corruption levels in the domestic and public sectors. In TI's annual global Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Kuwait slipped further from 65 to 66 place in a roster of 180 countries. According to the Berlin-based organization fighting worldwide corruption, Kuwait hit the bottom spot as the most corrupt country in the Gulf, following Jordan (49) and Tunisia (65). Kuwait ranks ninth in the Middle East and North African region.
Speaking to the Kuwait Times from Berlin, Tamara Kamhawi, Program Coordinator for Africa and Middle East at TI, said that CPI is a 'perception index' based on surveys which assess corruption in the public sector and if there has been enough effort from the government to crack down on corruption. Stressing that CPI should not be viewed as an annual comparison, she explained that CPI assesses the perception of the corruption problem in Kuwait by the private sector, businesspeople and analysts.
She explained that in the Middle East and North Africa region, only six countries scored five (on a scale from zero) or above (perceived to be "highly clean"), and 13 countries scored below five (perceived to be highly corrupt), identifying that the perception of corruption remains a serious problem in the region. In her words, these ranks indicate that the region "is still suffering from an endemic problem of corruption that has not yet been tackled properly," Kamhawi said.
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