TI: Lebanon Continues to Suffer from Rampant Corruption

Lebanon continues to suffer from public sector corruption despite a slight improvement since 2014, graft watchdog Transparency International (TI) said on Wednesday.

Lebanon ranked 123rd with a score of 28 out of a possible 100 in 2015 in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index.

The country scored 27 in 2014, it said. It was better off in 2012 with a score of 30.

Denmark remained at the top of the Index, which is a closely watched global barometer, for the second consecutive year as the country perceived as least corrupt. It scored 91 points while North Korea and Somalia remained at the bottom with unchanged scores of 8.

The index is based on expert opinions of public sector corruption, looking at a range of factors like whether governmental leaders are held to account or go unpunished for corruption, the perceived prevalence of bribery, and whether public institutions respond to citizens' needs.

The watchdog uses data from institutions including the World Bank, the African Development Bank and business school IMD to compile the perceptions of the scale of public sector corruption.

The score runs from zero, which is highly corrupt, to 100, which is very clean.

Overall, two-thirds of the 168 countries studied scored below 50 and the global average was 43.

Still, Transparency said it was a good sign that 64 countries improved their score while only 53 declined. The rest were unchanged.

G.K.

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