Berlin, 21 February 2018 – An index released today by Transparency International, which marks its 25th anniversary this year, reveals some disturbing information – despite attempts to combat corruption around the world, the majority of countries are moving too slowly in their efforts. While stemming the tide against corruption takes time, in the last six years many countries have still made little to no progress. Even more alarming, further analysis of the index results indicates that countries with the lowest protections for press and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) also tend to have the worst rates of corruption.
CPI 2017 Results for Armenia and Other Countries of the Region
Armenia's 2017 CPI score is 35 and it shares with Ethiopia, Macedonia and Vietnam 107th to 110thplaces among 180 in the CPI 2017 ranking table. In 2016 Armenia’s CPI score was 33 and with this score it was sharing 113th to 115th places among 176 countries. Taking into account that the calculated standard error for Armenia’s 2017 CPI score is equal to 3.79, it could be argued that compared to 2016, the perception of the corruption in the Armenian public sector remained approximately the same. At the same time, Armenia’s rank in the ranking table of 2017 CPI went up by 6 positions compared to 2016 CPI ranking table. If we’ll take out from the 2017 ranking table all those countries (4 countries), which were not included in the 2016 ranking table, then Armenia’s rank would go up 9 positions. However, the most disturbing is the trend observed in Armenia’s CPI score in the last three years (2014-2016), which could be seen from the below infographics. This trend needs more detailed discussion.
According to the Transparency International's regional distribution of the countries, Armenia is included in the Eastern Europe – Central Asia region (see the handout on the 2017 CPI corresponding regional table). This region includes non-EU member Balkan countries (Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Macedonia and Kosovo), former Soviet republics, except EU member Baltic countries (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia), and Turkey. Among 19 countries of the region Armenia is sharing 9-10th places with Macedonia (in 2016 it was on the 10th place). Armenia now is behind Baltic countries, Georgia, whose CPI score in 2017 is equal to 56 (instead of 57 in 2016 - a decrease in 1 point) – the highest among the countries of the region and Belarus, whose CPI score increased like in 2016 (from 40 in 2016 to 44 in 2017, or plus 4 points).
Among its neighbors Armenia continues to lag behind not only Georgia, but also Turkey (2017 CPI score is 40 compared to 41 in 2016), which continues its downslide since 2012, when its score was equal to 49. Two other neighbors of Armenia, namely Azerbaijan and Iran, improved their scores each by 1 point, though still staying behind Armenia. With its CPI score equal to 31, Azerbaijan now shares 122nd to 129th places and Iran with its CPI score equal to 30 shares 130th to 134th places. The CPI scores of all other member states of the Eurasian Economic Union, except Belarus, are still lower, than that of Armenia. In particular, Russia’s CPI score remained equal to 29 (135th to 142th places). In 2017 Kyrgyzstan’s score equal to that of Russia’s score. Kazakhstan’s score improved by 2 points, reaching 31 (122nd to 129th places).
