Ireland is moving toward increasingly low levels of corruption, according to a survey for 2009 published today by Transparency International (TI).
Ireland’s score has improved from 7.7 to 8 out of 10 since last year on the Corruption Perceptions Index, with a score close to 10 indicating extremely low levels of corruption, according to Transparency International Ireland.
The CPI scores countries on a scale of zero to 10, with zero indicating high levels of corruption. It is the second year running that Ireland's score has improved.
Ireland now lies alongside Germany as the 14th least corrupt country in the world out of 180 countries surveyed. Ireland was in 16th place last year. The United Kingdom ranks 17th with a score of 7.7.
New Zealand was the top-ranked country on the index with a score of 9.4, with Denmark next at 9.3, and followed by Singapore and Sweden, both on 9.2.
For the third year running, the conflict-ridden east African nation of Somalia came in last, with a score of 1.1. Afghanistan had the second-worst ranking at 1.3, down from 1.5 in 2008 and 1.8 in 2007. Burma followed with a score of 1.4, while Iraq and Sudan were both on 1.5.
The chief executive of TI Ireland, John Devitt, warned against using the index as a measure of the Government's progress on reform.
"This year's result could be taken as a sign that the country is effectively dealing with economic crime and corruption. That perception is far from the truth," he said.
"Successive governments have dragged their feet on important reforms such as whistleblower protection, the registration of lobbyists and transparency in political finance. And while some commitments have been made to introduce changes in the programme for government, there is still no clear sign of a shift away from the culture of 'stroke politics' and the second-hand trade in influence," he added.
Earlier this year, TI Ireland published its National Integrity Systems Country Study that highlighted the risk of "legal corruption" in Ireland.
The organisation said although cases of outright bribery and corruption are rare in Ireland, surveys and weak rules on conflicts of interest and lobbying "show a lack of trust in government's ability to govern independently of private interests".
"The banking crisis in particular shone a light on the dark corners of government and business relations in Ireland. The fact that our country will be crippled with debt for decades is a direct result of bad governance," Mr Devitt said."'Crony capitalism' did for Ireland what it did for Japan in the 1990s, yet there has been precious little discussion on how crony capitalism will be dealt with here."
TI Ireland has again urged the Government to introduce a broad law protecting whistleblowers in the private and public sector and to ratify the United Nations Convention against Corruption.
The Corruption Perceptions Index, published annually by TI, measures international business and expert perceptions of levels of public sector corruption around the world. Six surveys done by think tanks including the World Economic Forum and the Economist Intelligence Unit were used in drawing up Ireland's results.
Elsewhere, countries that saw their ranking drop included Iran, which fell to 1.8 from 2.3 following a presidential election in June that the opposition said was rigged.
Political turmoil also contributed to a fall in Ukraine's score to 2.2 from 2.5, while Greece saw its score slide to 3.8 from 4.7, reflecting insufficient anti-corruption enforcement, lengthy delays in the judicial process and a string of corporate scandals.
Countries that improved include the United States, which rose to 7.5 from 7.3, due to what TI called
Washington's swift response to the financial crisis.
Russia edged up to 2.2 from 2.1, a rise attributed to anti-corruption legislation introduced by President Dmitry Medvedev.
