Corruption level unchanged

The level of corruption in Nepal remained unchanged as of the last year, says an anti corruption watchdog.

Transparency International’s corruption perceptions index 2006 (CPI) has ranked Nepal in the 121st position indicating rampant corruption in the country.

The report, made public on Monday, said no improvement was made in Nepal on the corruption front. The score of 10 indicates a corruption-free country and Nepal managed to score only 2.5 points, the same as in 2005.

In preparing the CPI for 2005 and 2006, TI used 12 independent surveys and listed 163 countries accordingly to survey findings.

To rank Nepal, TI used five surveys done by the World Bank, the Economist, Merchant Group, WEF and WMRC.

The surveys studied the level of corruption in Nepal, efforts to curb it, misuse of state resources, corruption in government and probability of corruption.

The report ranked Finland, Iceland and New Zealand as the cleanest among the 163 nations it covered with 9.6 points while Haiti was perceived as the most corrupt country in the world with 1.9 points.

Among South Asian Nations, Bhutan is the cleanest with 6 points, while Bangladesh is the most corrupt with 2 points. The CPI ranks Pakistan and Bangladesh as more corrupt countries than Nepal.

Speaking at a programme organized to release the report, Transparency International Nepal’s executive Director Ashish Thapa stressed the need for the government to concentrate in amending constitutional and legal provisions and adopting transparency in the financial sector in order to control corruption.