Estonia climbs two notches on corruption perception scoreboard

Illustration: Allikas: Transparency International

Estonia ranks 26th worldwide, two places higher than last year, in the 20th edition of the Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International on Wednesday.

Estonia is tied in place 26 with France and Qatar in the table ranking 175 countries of the world. Its point score, 69, is one point higher than last year when it placed 28th. In 2012 Estonia placed 32nd with a point score of 64.

Of Estonia's Baltic neighbors, Lithuania is in place 39 with 58 points and Latvia in place 43 with 55 points.

Among the 31 European nations covered by the survey Estonia ranks 14th.

«The result for Estonia has improved a bit, showing a decline in public sector corruption,» said Jaanus Tehver, head of Transparency International Estonia. «In the long term perspective we can describe the situation of Estonia as standstill, however, because we cannot see a qualitative leap,» he said.

Transparency International Estonia said that to improve the score of Estonia, one needs to pay more attention to prevention of corruption, as fighting with the consequences is expensive and not effective. There's also a lack of personal example from leaders of the state. The parliament, for instance, has been unable to adopt MPs' code of conduct, which Transparency International Estonia and international organizations have been recommending for many years. Besides Transparency International Estonia advises the country to adopt rules for lobbying, as hidden lobbying increases the risk of corruption.

The international scoreboard this year is influenced a lot by the weakened corruption combating capability of growing economies, caused by global money laundering and clandestine business. Transparency International called on countries at the top of the index where public sector corruption is limited to stop encouraging it elsewhere by doing more to prevent money laundering and to stop secret companies from masking corruption.

Estonia too would gain a lot if information about the real beneficiary was added to the Commercial Register. Having a register entry like that would reduce the possibility that corrupt individuals would hide behind businesses registered to someone else's name.

More than two thirds of the 175 countries in the 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index scored below 50, on a scale from 0, or countries perceived to be highly corrupt, to 100, perceived to be very clean. Denmark came out on top in 2014 with a score of 92 while North Korea and Somalia shared last place, scoring just eight.

The Corruption Perceptions Index is based on expert opinions of public sector corruption. Countries' scores can be helped by open government where the public can hold leaders to account, while a poor score is a sign of prevalent bribery, lack of punishment for corruption and public institutions that don't respond to citizens' need.