KATHMANDU, JANUARY 25
Nepal has failed to improve its global position in corruption index as it has retained its 117th position in the global Corruption Perceptions Index 2021, with 33 points on the scale of 0 to 100 points, according to the annual report published by Transparency International.
The global corruption watchdog revealed that overall, corruption has slightly decreased over the last one decade. In the year 2021 Nepal’s CPI was 27 points, in 2013 the points increased to 31, in 2014 it was 29, in 2015 it was 27. After 2015, it has continued to increase slightly in the following years with 29 points in 2016, 31 points in 2017 and 2018, 34 points in 2019 and 33 points in 2020 and 2021.
The global anti-corruption watchdog conducts the CPI across the world by collecting the views of experts and conducting surveys in each country.
The TI, however, does not include the opinion of the general public. It claims to receive data from 13 external sources produced by the World Bank and World Economic Forum.
The TI covers various aspects of corruption such as bribery, diversion of public funds, and effective prosecution of corruption cases to adequate legal frameworks, access to information, and legal protections for whistleblowers, journalists and investigators. But, it does not cover issues of financial crimes such as tax fraud and money laundering.
In November 2020, the TI had issued a ‘Global Corruption Barometer-Asia’ with data showing that corruption had increased in the country by 58 per cent on the basis of ‘public opinion survey of thousands of citizens’.
The report also claimed that 50 per cent of corruption has to do with persons or institutes related to the Office of the President or the Office of the Prime Minister. Similarly, 43 per cent of people opined that lawmakers were involved in corruption.
This data has once again triggered a heated dispute among government bodies, which have dismissed the report questioning its authenticity.
The TI has said that the corruption index throughout the world has remained constant undermining democracy and human rights.
The chart is topped by Denmark, Finland and Newzealand jointly with 88 points each.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 26, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.