Transparency International: Corruption Perception Index 2021

The Corruption Perception Index 2021 has been released by Transparency International on January 25th, 2022. The Corruption Perception Index offers an annual snapshot of the relative degree of corruption by ranking countries and territories from all over the globe.

The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories around the world by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. It is the most widely used corruption ranking in the world.  The Corruption Perception Index uses a scale from 0 to 100.  100 is very clean and 0 is highly corrupt.

The ranking is built from a combination of at least 3 data sources from 13 different corruption surveys and evaluations, issued by reputable institutions, including the World Band and the World Economic Forum.

The Corruption Perception Index covers the following manifestation of public sector corruption:

• Bribery
• Diversion of public funds
• Officials using their public office for private gain without facing consequences
• Ability of governments to contain corruption in the public sector
• Excessive red tape in the public sector which may increase opportunities for corruption
• Nepotistic appointments in the civil service
• Laws ensuring that public officials must disclose their finances and potential conflicts of interest
• Legal protection for people who report cases of bribery and corruption
• State capture by narrow vested interests
• Access to information on public affairs/government activities
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It does not cover:

• Citizens’ direct perceptions or experience of corruption
• Tax fraud
• Illicit financial flows
• Enablers of corruption (lawyers, accountants, financial advisors etc)
• Money-laundering
• Private sector corruption
• Informal economies and markets
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68% of countries score below 50 and the average global score remains static at 43 versus 2020 report. Since 2012, 25 countries significantly improved their scores, but in the same period 23 countries significantly declined.

The Corruption Perception Index is a key element of Cleversoft’s process to assess country risks.  Our Country risk assessment rates countries with 3 risk levels: Low, Medium, and High.  The corruption Perception Index is the pivot indicator of the assessment.  It is mitigated positively or negatively by the following additional indicators:

• The country’s membership in EU, OECD, FATF, EEA and Egmont group,
• The country classification in the OECD list for EOIR (exchange of information on request),
• The country classification in the GDI (Government Defence Integrity) Index of Transparency International,
• The country classification in the ISIS (Institute for Science and International Security) PPI index,
• The country classification in the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions,
• The country inclusion in the FATF list of countries with strategic deficiencies,
• The country inclusion in the list of FATF countries requiring strategic improvements,
• The country inclusion in embargo lists (UN / EU / SECO lists),
• The country inclusion in the list of producer countries of the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime).
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‍How does it impact you?

Our Country risks list is used in:

• AMLspotter,
• AMLspotter Online,
• WEB BNC,
• KYC & AML cloud suite
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 KYC Addon
• API.

Despite significant changes in 2021 linked to the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, our Country risks list remain unchanged, as CPI index changes do not impact countries in such a way that their risk level is changed.  This means practically for you that your current country risks list remains valid.  The below chart is a summary of the distribution of countries in the different levels of risk.