Finland Times

 

People are playing on ice in Helsinki. File Photo Lehtikuva.

Finland ranked third among the least corrupt countries in the world as per the 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International published on Wednesday.

 

Another Nordic country, Denmark, secured the top position on the list with a score of 92, followed by New Zealand (score 91), Finland (89), Sweden (87) and Norway (86).

 

The score of Finland has remained unchanged from the previous year, although it secured second position on the list of least corrupt countries in 2013.

 

Somalia and North Korea jointly landed at the bottom of the list with a score of eight, followed by Sudan (score 11), Afghanistan (12) and South Sudan (15).

 

These five countries were also at the bottom of the list in 2013.

 

More than two-thirds of the 175 countries on the 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index scored below 50 on a scale of 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean), said a TI press release.

 

“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, chair of Transparency International.

 

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

 

The Corruption Perceptions Index is based on expert opinions on public sector corruption. Countries’ scores can be helped by open government where 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.