Corruption perception index for 2017

An index released today by Transparency International, which marks its 25^th anniversary this year, reveals some disturbing information – despite attempts to combat corruption around the world, the majority of countries are moving too slowly in their efforts.

The Corruption Perceptions Index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, shows that in the last six years, many countries are still making little to no progress. This year, the index found that more than two-thirds of countries score below 50, with an average score of 43. The best performing region is Western Europe with an average score of 66.

This year Bulgaria scores 43 on the index. This is an increase of 2 points in the last year. The score equals to the average score worldwide, but ranks the country among the group of laggards within the EU member states (together with Hungary 45, Romania and Greece 48, Croatia 49).

The 2017 CPI for Bulgaria is built on the results provided by 10 different surveys, half of which are reflecting the experts’ opinion from the business world, and the other half assembling the assessment of research institutes in the field of democratic governance and politics.

Aggregated data from both business experts’ and research institutes’ surveys are pointing to a slight improvement of 2 points as compared to Bulgaria’s CPI 2016 score.

While stemming the tide against corruption takes time, comparative data show that in the last six years Bulgaria has made little progress with CPI scores ranging between 41 in 2012 and 43 in 2017.

A sustainable trend of irreversible improvement of more than 3 points on an annual base could be envisaged only if the country succeeds in delivering positive results in two major directions:

1) Effective implementation of the E-government and E-procurement platforms in the “public administration – citizens – business” interaction,

2) Positive track-record of the work of the newly established ant-corruption state commission.

The overall anti-corruption policy in Bulgaria should also take into consideration the most alarming trend of the 2017 CPI worldwide – the analysis of the index indicates that countries with the worst rates of corruption also tend to pose the greatest threat to civil society and media.

Here are the results from the index, as well as some additional assets provided by Transparency International.