On January 29, 2019, Transparency International ("TI")
published its annual Corruption Perceptions
Index ("CPI") for 2018, a survey which ranks
perceptions of public sector corruption in 180 countries and
territories according to experts and business people on a scale of
0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). Last year, our coverage of
the
CPI for 2017 observed that although Asia-Pacific performed
higher than the worst performing regions, public sector corruption
was a serious problem. This remains the case, with some indications
of further decline in the CPI for 2018.
According to TI, the new survey shows that "most
countries are failing to make serious inroads against
corruption" year-on-year. TI uses a numerical system to
rate countries on a number of factors, with a higher score meaning
the country or territory is perceived as less corrupt and a lower
score meaning the country or territory is perceived as more
corrupt. A score close to 100 indicates more
