Malta 28th least corrupt country, report says

Perceived levels of corruption in Malta's public sector and among politicians increased over the last year, though the island is the second least corrupt among the new EU states, according to global watchdog Transparency International.

Placing 28th among the 163 countries surveyed in the 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index, Malta was given a higher ranking than Italy and Greece, which trail embarrassingly in 45th and 54th positions respectively.

"Malta is not a bad performer but there is certainly room for improvement," Robin Hodess, TI's director for policy and research, told The Times when contacted.

Malta obtained a score of 6.4 out of a maximum 10, a drop of 0.2 points compared to last year's survey.

The Scandinavian and Nordic countries maintained their enviable claim as the least corrupt countries in the world. Finland, Iceland and New Zealand are in the top spot with 9.6 points, followed by Denmark, Singapore and Sweden.

Seven of the 10 new EU states saw an improvement in their ranking (with the Czech Republic and Latvia making the biggest inroads), while Malta, Poland and Cyprus saw a deterioration in their score.

The TI index focuses on corruption in the public sector and defines corruption as the abuse of public office for private gain. The surveys used in compiling the CPI ask questions that relate to the misuse of public power for private benefit, for example, bribery of public officials and kickbacks in public procurement.

Ms Hodess said Malta's score was based on four surveys carried out by the Merchants International Group, the World Market Research Ranking and the World Economic Surveys for 2005 and 2006. Malta's scores ranged from 5.4 to 7.3.

The surveys questioned a mix of business people and experts in the field and the information is passed on to TI, which collates it, standardises the figures and draws up the list.

"The index is very reliable because it's derived from a lot of sources," she said.

Though Malta places rather high on the list, Ms Hodess said it was worth looking at the score rather than the ranking.

"It's clear that the challenges to transform the economies of Eastern Europe are many - and the sheer size of some of the new EU states adds to the complexities," she added.

The index points to a strong correlation between corruption and poverty, with a concentration of impoverished states at the bottom of the ranking.

Almost three quarters of the countries in the list score below five, indicating that most countries in the world face serious perceived levels of domestic corruption. Nearly half of all the countries surveyed score below three, indicating that corruption is perceived as rampant.

Countries with a significant worsening in perceived levels of corruption include Brazil, Israel and the US, the latter obtaining 7.3 points.

Iraq has sunk to the penultimate place, even if pre-war survey data is not included in this year's index. The other countries at the bottom of the list are Guinea, Myanmar and Haiti.

And, according to TI Kenya's bribery index, bribery costs Kenyans about $1 billion each year - yet more than half live on less than $2 a day.