TRACE International: Georgia ranks in top 30 countries with less business bribery risk

The 2020 TRACE Bribery Risk Matrix ranked Georgia in 28th of 194 counties in its annual bribery prevalence in business measurement. 

Georgia received a score of 25, TRACE International says. 

The overall country risk score is a combined and weighted score of four domains: Business Interactions with Government; Anti-Bribery Deterrence and Enforcement; Government and Civil Service Transparency; and Capacity for Civil Society Oversight, including the role of the media,” says TRACE International.

The Institute for Development of Freedom of Information (IDFI) says that Georgia ranked 27th among 200 countries with a score of 26 in 2019. The country’s results were identical in 2018. 

However, these rankings were also a deterioration compared to 2017 when the country came in 25th out of 200 countries with a score of 23.

The TRACE Bribery Risk Matrix assess the nature of corruption in the following four areas:

• Deterrence - refers to the anti-corruption policy pursued by the government and the public's attitude towards bribery; Georgia has got 39 points
• Oversight - considers the quality of media and its freedom as well as the involvement of the public; Georgia has got 28 points
• Transparency - examines good governmental and financial transparency; Georgia receives 26 points
• Opportunity - considers the business relationship with the government, the expectation of paying a bribe to the government and the burden of regulation; Georgia receives 17 points

The lowest score indicates the lowest risk of corruption in the field.

The lowest risk of corruption in business at the international level is in Denmark, so it stands first in the ranking with a total score of one. The highest risk of business corruption was recorded in North Korea, which ranks 194th with a total score of 93.

The top ten countries with lowest business corruption risks are Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, United Kingdom, and Iceland.

As for Georgia’s neighboring countries, Azerbaijan stands in 136th place which means that it has more prevalent business corruption compared to Russia which ranks at 127 and Turkey which stands at 114 on the list. 

Meanwhile, Amenia has lower corruption risk in business compared to these countries and stands in 43th place on the list, coming after Georgia in the region.

The TRACE Matrix was originally developed in 2014 in collaboration with RAND Corporation.