Turkey continues to slide in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index

ISTANBUL - Doğan News Agency

Turkey ranked 81st out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s newly released Corruption Perceptions Index 2017, sliding six places from the previous year.

Turkey scored 40 in the index last year, a one-point decrease from 2016. The scale is from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean).

Among G-20 countries, Turkey ranked 13th, while its score was second lowest among the 35 OECD member states.

Turkey is also among the five worst performers in recent years, losing 10 points and falling 28 places between 2012 and 2017. Santa Lucia lost 16 points and Bahrain lost 15 points, while Syria and Guinea saw their scores decline 12 and 8 points over the same period respectively.

New Zealand and Denmark ranked highest with scores of 89 and 88 respectively, while Syria, South Sudan and Somalia ranked lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9 respectively.

Turkey’s score rose as high as 50 in 2013 but it has gradually declined since then.

‘Widespread nepotism’

“2017 results once again prove that perception regarding corruption is directly related to rule of law, press freedom, civil society strength, freedom of association and speech,” Transparency International’s Turkey branch said in a statement. 

“Violations in these areas have worrying outcomes for corruption perception. Violation of the Public Procurement Law, countless changes introduced, and new exceptions defined are paving the way to systemic failures and undermining fundamental institutions for good governance,” it added.

The watchdog noted that in the previous year, 40 percent of investments and procurement of goods and services were concluded outside the scope of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) and in 27.7 percent of those open tender methods were not used.

“Countless cases of nepotism and clientelism in public appointments and promotions in 2017 are also among the prominent reasons behind the erosion Turkey is experiencing in the Corruption Perception Index,” the statement read.

Oya Özarslan, the head of Transparency International’s Turkey branch, said the country losing 10 points in the last five years also damaged its competitiveness in the global arena.

“The rule of law, transparency and accountability are the only way out of this situation,” she said.