News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Mar. 2, 2018: The list of the most corrupt countries in the world is out, thanks to Transparency International’s annual vigilance. Here are the 8 of the nations’ perceived as most corrupt in the Caribbean and Latin America, respectively for 2017, as compiled by News Americas using TI’s latest global rankings.
CARIBBEAN
1: Haiti
The French Caribbean nation of Haiti came in as the most corrupt nation in the Caribbean, ranking at 157 globally, along with Uzbekistan after scoring just 22 on its Corruption Perception index.
2: Dominican Republic
Coming in as the second most corrupt nation in the Caribbean is the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. It ranked at 135th globally and scored just 29 on its Corruption Perception index.
3: Guyana
The South American CARICOM nation of Guyana took the third spot for the most corrupt Caribbean nation. Globally, it ranked at 91, along with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sri Lanka after scoring 38 on its corruption perception score card.
4: Trinidad & Tobago
The twin-island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago also ranked 77th globally, slightly ahead of Ghana, landing it at fifth on our list after scoring 41 on the Corruption Perception index.
5: Suriname
At fifth on the Caribbean’s most corrupt list is Suriname with a rank globally of 77th, behind Serbia and China after also scoring 41 on the Corruption Perception index.
6: Jamaica
Taking the 6th spot on the Caribbean’s most corrupt list is Jamaica. The country was ranked by TI globally at 68th, right alongside Oman and Belarus, after it scored 44 on TI’s Corruption Perception score card.
7: Cuba
Considered the 7th most corrupt country in the Caribbean, Cuba was ranked globally at just 62, along with Malaysia and slightly behind Romania. Cuba scored 47 on the Corruption Perception index.
8: Grenada
Rounding out the top 8 most corrupt according to TI’s rank is the Spice Island of Grenada, which goes to the polls again on March 13th. The country was ranked at 52nd globally, behind South Korea and just ahead of Namibia. Grenada also scored 52 on the TI Corruption Perception score card.
LATIN AMERICA
1: Venezuela
The South America nation of Venezuela took the spot as the most corrupt country in Latin and South America, ranking globally at 169th, just above Equatorial Guinea with a perception corruption score of just 18.
2: Nicaragua
Nicaragua ranked second on the list of most corrupt Americas nation and second most corrupt in Latin America, sharing the global rank of 151 with Uganda, with a perception corruption score of 26.
3: Guatemala
Coming in at third on our list is Guatemala, with a global rank of 143, same as Kenya, and a title of third most corrupt in Latin America. The country scored 28 on its corruption perception index.
4: Paraguay
Ranking as the fourth most corrupt nation in Latin America is Paraguay. The country came in globally at 135th, along with Russia and Papua New Guinea, according to the TI rankings. Paraguay scored 29 on its corruption perception score card.
5: Mexico
Taking the fifth spot on the most corrupt Latin America list is Mexico which ranked 135th globally as well, along with Lao PDR and Kyrgyzstan after scoring 29 on its corruption perception score card.
6: Honduras
Coming in at sixth on News Americas most corrupt Latin America ranks is Honduras, which also scored a rank of 135 globally, along with the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Paraguay. Honduras scored 29 on its corruption perception scorecard.
7: Ecuador
Based on the TI data, Ecuador is the seventh most corrupt nation in Latin America. The country scored a rank of 117th globally, along with Egypt and Gabon, scoring 32 on its corruption perception index.
8: El Salvador
Rounding out the top 8 most corrupt nations in Latin America is El Salvador, which scored 112th globally, along with Maldives and Niger, scoring 33 on its corruption perception score card.
ABOUT THE INDEX
The TI index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, using a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. This year, the index found that more than two-thirds of countries scored below 50, with an average score of 43.
TI says that in the Americas – the Caribbean and Latin America, while progress has been made to combat corruption in several countries, there are still no overarching policies in place to address the historic and structural causes of corruption throughout the region.
GLOBALLY
Globally this past year, New Zealand and Denmark ranked highest with scores of 89 and 88, respectively, putting them in the first and second rank globally. Syria, South Sudan and Somalia ranked the lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9, respectively. The US is ranked at 16th globally
The best performing region was Western Europe with an average score of 66 while the worst performing regions were Sub-Saharan Africa with an average score of 32 and Eastern Europe and Central Asia with an average score of 34.
