Greece gets a better corruption rating from Transparency International
Greece improved its standing in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index last year, dropping to 58th place out of 168 countries, compared to 69th place the year before.
According to the annual index, whose findings were made public on Wednesday, Greece scored 46 on a scale of 0 to 100 (where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 very transparent).
Commenting on Wednesday, the head of TI’s Greek office, Costas Bakouris, said the development was “encouraging” and credited it to the reassurances made by a series of governments to tackle the problem of corruption in Greek public life.
He noted, however, that the scourge of corruption will be difficult to stamp out as “the crisis in Greece is chiefly a crisis of values and no government has yet succeeded in restoring institutions and creating models of integrity in order to change the attitude of citizens toward corruption.”
According to the index, the perception of Greece as corrupt abated between 2012 and 2015, with the country rising 10 points on TI’s scale. Topping the chart of corrupt countries are North Korea and Somalia, both with eight points, while Bulgaria is perceived as being the least transparent country in the European Union, with 41 points.
