Transparency International Upgraded Armenia’s Position in Its Annual Corruption Report

BERLIN — Armenia has improved its position in the Public Sector Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)in 2023, scoring 47 points out of 100 compared to 46 in 2022, Varuzhan Hoktanyan, program manager at Transparency International’s Anti-Corruption Center in Armenia , said on Tuesday.

According to Hoktanyan, the CPI ranked Armenia 62nd among 180 countries surveyed. He explained that the countries that scored less than 50 points are in the corruption risk zone.

“In the two years following the 2018 Velvet Revolution, Armenia experienced significant democratic and anti-corruption reforms. However, progress in the fight against corruption has stalled, primarily due to the limited application of new anti-corruption measures,” Hoktanyan noted at the press conference.

The CPI report notes that serious corruption-related problems persist in Azerbaijan (23 points), Tajikistan (20 points) and Turkmenistan (18 points). In these countries, authoritarian control of state institutions by ruling elites is widespread, and corruption serves the purpose of retaining power and evading accountability. Russia scored 26 points.

In Georgia (53 points), corruption points to a deeper systemic problem – concentration of power, pervasive influence of elites on state institutions, and decision-making processes.

“Corruption will continue to thrive until justice systems can punish wrongdoing and keep governments in check,” Transparency International chair François Valérian said in a statement. He added that “leaders should fully invest in and guarantee the independence of institutions that uphold the law and tackle corruption.”

The organization measures the perception of public sector corruption according to 13 data sources including the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and private risk and consulting companies. It ranks 180 countries and territories on a scale from a “highly corrupt” 0 to a “very clean” 100.

Denmark tops the index with the highest score for the sixth consecutive year, with 90. It is followed by Finland with 87 and New Zealand with 85. The others in the top 10 were Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg.

At the other end, Somalia again had the weakest score with 11. It was followed by South Sudan, Syria and Venezuela with 13 each; Yemen with 16; and Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, North Korea and Nicaragua with 17 each.