Bangladesh scored 13-year low on CPI
Transparency International in its Corruption Perception Index 2024 indicated that corruption was increasing in Bangladesh as the country slipped two steps in its global Corruption Perception Index to 151, jointly with Congo and Iran.
According to the report, Bangladesh has scored 23 to become the 14th most corrupt country globally and the second most corrupt state in South Asia, only ahead of Afghanistan scoring 17.
In 2023, Bangladesh ranked 149th with a score of 24.
The Berlin-based anti-graft watchdog鈥檚 Bangladesh chapter, Transparency International Bangladesh, presented the results of CPI 2024 on Tuesday at a press conference at its Dhaka office, terming the country鈥檚 performance as 鈥榙isappointing.鈥�
Bangladesh鈥檚 latest score is the lowest in the past 13 years, highlighting a troubling trend in governance and corruption.
The 2024 corruption index has been prepared based on the data for the period spanning from November 2021 to September 2024.
Over the past 12 years, the country鈥檚 corruption score remained consistently poor, with 2024鈥檚 score being 6 points worse than the highest score of 28 achieved in 2017.
The Transparency International index measures the level of perceived corruption聽 on a scale of 0 to 100. Score 鈥�0鈥� is considered the most corrupt, while 鈥�100鈥� is considered the least corrupt or the most well-governed.
TIB executive director Iftekharuzzaman at the press conference put the unbridled corruption down largely to the absence of effective actions against high level corruption and money laundering incidents against which there was concrete evidence.
The state institutions mandated to control corruption, including the Anti-Corruption Commission and judicial bodies, continued to operate under partisan political influence, he said.
He also said that even after the fall of the authoritarian regime, abuse of power and corrupt practices in political and governance spaces persisted, risking the freedom to dissent, media freedom and civic space.
Since 2012, Bangladesh鈥檚 score in the CPI stayed between 25 and 28 until 2022. In 2023, it decreased by one point to 24.
A trend analysis of CPI scores of 2012鈥�2024 shows that Bangladesh鈥檚 score of 23 in 2024 is three points lower than the 13-year average score of 26.
Transparency International said that governments across the Asia-Pacific were still failing to deliver on anti-corruption pledges.聽
After years of stagnation, the 2024 average score for the region dropped by one point to 44 in CPI 2024, it said.
Globally, the CPI scores of 56 countries have increased this year compared with the previous year. The scores of 93 countries decreased while 31 countries鈥� remained unchanged.
Over two-thirds of the world鈥檚 countries scored below 50 in 2024, and 56 per cent scored below the global average of 43.
While the scores of 32 countries improved in the index from 2012 to 2024, the scores of 47 countries declined, and 101 countries remained unchanged.
The CPI report states that Denmark topped the list in 2024 as the least corrupt country with a score of 90, with Finland securing the second place with 88 score, while Singapore occupied the third place with a score of 84.
Scoring just 8, South Sudan is placed at the bottom of the list in 2024, Somalia in the second-lowest position with a score of 9, and Venezuela in the third-lowest position with a score of 10.
In the past 12 years, Bangladesh has not even come close to touching the global average in the CPI score. In fact, its scores rose only thrice, while mostly going down.
The best position Bangladesh secured for itself among 180 countries was in 2013 when it ranked 136th.
Even pitted against its neighbours, Bangladesh does not fare well, according to the TI report鈥擝hutan became 18th, Maldives 96th, India 96th, Nepal 107th, Sri Lanka 121st and Pakistan 135th鈥攁re all above Bangladesh. Among the countries only Bhutan has crossed the global average with a score of 72.
Only Afghanistan, ranked 165th with 17 score is behind Bangladesh in South Asia. The lowest on the list鈥攎eaning the most corrupt鈥攊s war-torn South Sudan scoring 8.
Bangladesh鈥檚 score is 6 points less than the average of other authoritarian regimes in the world. It score is also 6 points lower than the average score for countries with lowest Human Development Index, and also 6 points lower than the average for countries with closed civic space.
The keynote paper presented at the press conference, the TIB gave some recommendations, the major one of which is implementing the recommendations of the Anti-Corruption Reform Commission with a specific focus on reforming the ACC making it truly independent and accountable.
Depoliticising state institutions such as the ACC, bureaucracy, law-enforcement agencies and judiciary has also been recommended.聽
Contacted, ACC director general (prevention) Md Aktar Hossain on Tuesday declined to comment over the CPI report, saying that they had yet to see the report.