Singapore is ranked 5th least corrupt country in the world by anti-corruption agency
City-state is the only Asian country in top 10 of the Corruption Perceptions Index list
SINGAPORE — Singapore has been ranked the fifth least corrupt country in the world - and the least corrupt Asian country - according to the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released by anti-corruption agency Transparency International.
The Corrupt Practices Investigations Bureau (CPIB) said in a media release on Tuesday (31 January) that the city-state scored 83 on the CPI scale out of 180 countries and territories in 2022 - its lowest score in a decade.
Singapore is the only Asian country in the top 10 on the 2022 list. It is placed behind behind Denmark, Finland, New Zealand and Norway.
In 2021, Singapore was ranked fourth on the CPI list with a score of 85. In 2012, it scored 87 on the index.
The index ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, drawing upon 13 expert assessments and surveys of business people. Countries are scored on a scale of zero, for highly corrupt, to 100, for very clean.
Hong Kong (12th) and Japan (19th) are the other two Asian territories in the top 20 on the list.
Corruption situation in Singapore 'firmly under control': CPIB
Based on Transparency International's report, the Asia-Pacific region has stagnated for four years in a row, with an average score of 45. It said that this could be due to governments in the region prioritising economic recovery over anti-corruption efforts post-pandemic.
While governments have made advancements against petty corruption, grand corruption remains a phenomenon in the region, added the agency, which is a non-profit organisation based in Germany.
CPIB said in its media release that the corruption situation in Singapore remains firmly under control, with the annual corruption statistics indicating that the number of public sector corruption cases has remained consistently low over the years.
It added that Singapore has also performed well across international indices for incorruptibility and clean public sector.
For example, the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy has again ranked Singapore as the least corrupt country in its 2022 Report on Corruption in Asia out of 16 economies. In the World Justice Project Rule of Law Index last year, Singapore was ranked third for absence of corruption, the top Asian nation out of 140 countries ranked.
CPIB said the top three factors that contributed to Singapore's low corruption rate were political determination, heavy punishment for corruption offences, and a zero-tolerance culture for corruption.
It cited last year's Public Perception Survey conducted with over 1,000 respondents in Singapore, where 96 per cent rated Singapore’s corruption control efforts to be effective, an improvement from 94 per cent in 2020.
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