Deputy Finance Minister hails Georgia’s “leading position” as “corruption-free” state

Mikheil Dundua, the Deputy Finance Minister of Georgia, on Tuesday hailed the country’s “leading position” in Eastern Europe and worldwide as a “corruption-free” state, in reaction to the latest edition of the Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International this week. 

Georgia was ranked 49th out of 180 countries and territories worldwide in terms of perceived levels of public sector corruption, scoring 53 points on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), surpassing Malta, Croatia, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary.

Georgia's attainment of the top position in Eastern Europe and Central Asia for freedom from corruption underscores its leadership role in the Black Sea region and the Caucasus. This achievement is particularly noteworthy, as it surpasses not only 10 European Union and NATO member states, but also all EU candidate countries", Dundua said. 

In the ranking, Georgia surpassed Malta, Croatia, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary from the bloc’s member states and outperformed all candidate countries, which include Montenegro, Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine, Bosnia, Turkey and Albania.