4 December 2014

According to the 2014 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, Kosovo and Albania continue to be the most corrupt countries in South-East Europe.

According to the index published by the Berlin-based watchdog on Wednesday, Albania and Kosovo are ranked joint 110th out of 174 countries around the world that were assessed in the report.

Slovenia is the least corrupt country in the region, ranked 35th, followed by Croatia, which ranked 61st, Macedonia 64th, Bulgaria and Rumania 69th, Montenegro 76th , Serbia 78th Bosnia and Herzegovina 80th.

“The 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index shows that economic growth is undermined and efforts to stop corruption fade when leaders and high-level officials abuse power to appropriate public funds for personal gain,” said José Ugaz, the chair of Transparency International, in a statement.

“Corrupt officials smuggle ill-gotten assets into safe havens through offshore companies with absolute impunity,” Ugaz continued.

“Countries at the bottom need to adopt radical anti-corruption measures in favour of their people. Countries at the top of the index should make sure they don’t export corrupt practices to underdeveloped countries,” he said.

The Corruption Perceptions Index is based on expert opinions of public sector corruption.

Countries’ scores can be helped by open government, when the public can hold leaders to account, while a poor score is a sign of prevalent bribery, lack of punishment for corruption and public institutions that don’t respond to citizens’ needs.

More than two thirds of the 175 countries in the 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index score below 50, on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean).

Denmark came out on top in 2014 while North Korea and Somalia shared last place.