Poland as corrupt as last year

Transparency International last week published the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2007, ranking Poland in 61st place out of 180, with a score of 4.2 out of a possible 10 (one point being the worst and 10 being the best). The country was ranked in the same place last year - out of a total of 163 countries - when it received a lower score of 3.7.

Two other countries shared 61st place with Poland - Cuba and Tunisia. Denmark, Finland and New Zealand stood at the head of the ranking, each with with 9.4 points, while 179th place (1.4 points) was shared by Somalia and Myanmar. Of the 2004 EU accession countries, all of Poland's peers were ranked higher, with Lithuania and Latvia occuping the lowest spot save Poland's, with 4.8 points each. Of EU bloc members, only newcomers Bulgaria (4.1 points) and Romania (3.7) fared worse.

The CPI, released annually since 1995, ranks countries according to the degree that corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians. Each country's ranking is based on a number of different, independent surveys, with a minimum of three surveys needed for a ranking.

According to the CPI report, "The country with the lowest score is the one where corruption is perceived to be greatest among those included in the list." However, the report notes, there are over 200 soveriegn countries in the world and the 2007 Index deals with only 180 of them. Insufficient data was available to include countries like North Korea, Bermuda, French Guiana and Liechtenstein in the ranking.

Anna Kalembasiak