Nepal Rated Second Most Corrupt Country in South Asia

Nepal Rated Second Most Corrupt Country in South Asia
Anil Giri

Kathmandu, Nepal

Global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) has listed Nepal as the second most corrupt nation in South Asia after Afghanistan, slipping eight points from last year.

It also exhibited that Nepal has fared no better in its fight against corruption, with TI's annual Corruption Perceptions Index released Thursday putting the country at 154th position, among 183 countries surveyed.

Nepal scored 2.2, where zero means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 10 that a country is perceived as corruption-free.

In 2010, Nepal was listed 146th among 178 corrupt countries with a 2.3 score.

The least corrupt country among the eight South Asian countries, Bhutan, was in 38th position while the most corrupt, Afghanistan, ranked 180th.

TI has warned that protests around the world, often fuelled by corruption and economic instability, clearly show citizens feel their leaders and public institutions are neither transparent nor accountable enough.

The index used data from 17 surveys that looked at factors such as enforcement of anti-corruption laws, access to information and conflicts of interest.

This year, two-thirds of ranked countries score less than 5. New Zealand, followed by Finland and Denmark, top the list, while Somalia and North Korea are at the bottom.