Level of perceived corruption in Georgia remains stable

Georgia ranks 55th in Transparency Internationals 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) which measures perceived public sector corruption in 177 countries.

Georgias score is 49 on a scale of 0 (most corrupt) to 100 (least corrupt). According to Transparency International (TI) Georgia, this is a slight deterioration compared to 2012, when Georgia scored 52 (51th place out of 176 countries). Despite Georgia has worsened its positions with 4 steps from last year, TI Georgia assesses the level of perceived corruption in country as stable.

"Since coming to power in October 2012, the Georgian Dream-led government has advanced anti-corruption reforms in some areas, including through expanding the scope of public officials asset declarations and by publishing directly awarded government contracts, including all small purchases, on the e-procurement portal both are practices where Georgia serves as a best-practice case worldwide, - reads the press release of the TI Georgia.

However, the organization argues that parallel to the positive reforms, several high-level representatives of the government have made ambiguous statements about nepotistic hiring practices in the public sector.

"In the past year, the State Audit Office has done little to scrutinize ongoing government spending. So far, little progress has been made in drafting a new Anti-Corruption Strategy and Action Plan for the coming years, - TI Georgia says.

In this sense, in order to strengthen Georgias fight against corruption and misuse of power the organization recommends the Georgian government to:

• Further strengthen the capacity of the Prosecutors Office, the State Audit Office, the competition agency, and independent regulatory bodies, and refrain from any undue political interference in the work of these entities while providing them with sufficient resources;
• Establish appropriate democratic oversight over the Ministry of Internal Affairs activities and limit the Ministrys ability to monitor in real-time all telephone and Internet communication in the country should be limited.
• Set up an independent anti-corruption agency tasked with prevention, investigation, and public education;
• Strengthen anti-corruption mechanisms and policies of local government bodies, as these entities may be given more autonomy and resources through planned reforms;
• Address the corruption risks arising from the movement of officials between the public and the private sectors and the abuse of public office for the benefit of specific private companies;
• Ensure transparent management of Georgias defense budget, since defense spending has been a major area of corruption risks in the country for a number of years;
• Improve the administrative capabilities and oversight capacity of Parliament, especially over the activities of the Ministry of Interior, including the activity of law enforcement and investigation bodies.

The perceived level of corruption in Georgia remains higher than in the Baltic states (Estonia is 28th, Lithuania 43rd, Latvia 49th) but it ranks ahead of the EU member states Croatia, Czech Republic (both 57th), Slovakia (61), Italy, Romania (both 69), Bulgaria (77) and Greece (80). Turkey ranks 53rd, just ahead of Georgia; Armenia is 94th, Russia and Azerbaijan share rank 127.

The countries with the lowest perceived corruption in 2013 are Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Singapore. The countries perceived as most corrupt are Iraq, Libya, South Sudan, Sudan, Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia.