TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL’S CORRUPTION PERCEPTION INDEX 2015 HAS BEEN RELEASED
Transparency International, one of the leading global civil society organizations in the fight against corruption, has publicly announced the results of its 2015 Corruption Perception Index, which is being published yearly since 1995.
Turkey’s decline continues!
In the study, including 168 countries from around the globe Turkey’s score is down 3 points, ranking below the 2014 score.
Turkey’s score declined by 3 points to 42, from the previous year’s 45. Having reset the improvement of the previous 6 years with the drop in 2014, the reported decrease in 2015 means Turkey has sustained its negative status. This also corresponds to a 2-point drop in ranking from last year, placing Turkey in the 66th position among the 168 participating countries. This decline in Turkey’s ranking in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2015 indicates an adverse and unfavorable deterioration of the reforms that have been reported as improvement during the last few years.
According to the CPI 2015 score and ranking, along with Bulgaria, Turkey is moving away from Europe as it falls behind the EU states. Alongside Macedonia, which had been shaken by the tape scandals in previous year, Turkey ties for the 3rd place out of 19 Eastern European and Central Asian states. Among the G20 member states, Turkey’s rank declined from 10 to 12. Furthermore, Turkey is listed in the Index amidst the worst performers of the last 4 years, such as Libya and Brazil, which is being shaken with scandals.
68 percent of the 168 countries in the 2015 Index score below 50 on a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean). CPI 2015 lists Denmark as the best performer with a score of 91, while Finland (90) and Sweden (89) follow respectively. North Korea and Somalia this year make up the worst performers with the highest perception of corruption, both with a score of 8 points.
These results clearly demonstrate the need to develop much more transparent, proper and accountable policies by public institutions and officials.
How to Interpret Turkey’s Decline
There is no doubt that Turkey’s decline in the rankings reflects the unstable performance regarding its fight against corruption in recent years.
E. Oya Ozarslan, Chair of TI Turkey commented on the issue; “The lack of judicial process for corruption scandals and interventions in legal procedures led to the consolidation of impunity culture and to the perception that corrupt actions will not be prosecuted. This brings about a social mood in which learned helplessness, indifference and apathy dominate. Furthermore, the lack of anti-corruption reforms in recent years, combined with the social mood described above, doesn’t help creating the right conditions for the fight against corruption.”
The sustained decline in Turkey’s score in the 2015 Index can also be interpreted as a global response to the strict restrictions on the freedom of speech and expression, increasing censorship on the internet and social media, the visible pressure on judiciary, and unlawful exercises in Turkey. In the social and political sense, the results of the 2015 Index emphasize that the issue of corruption has become a question of freedom of democracy, speech and expression. In this context, Transparency International states that fast growing economies, a categorization Turkey belongs to, have been developing a culture of impunity and calls them to embrace a “culture of transparency,” which is indispensable for a democratic and accountable society.
It is believed that the international data released by Transparency International will have an impact on foreign direct investments Turkey receives. According to the 2015 CPI results, compared to states in a strict economical cooperation and/or competition with Turkey, Turkey is in a sustained downturn. Such a trend could impact national and multinational corporations operating in Turkey directly due to the increased perceived risks. One has to keep in mind that in states where corruption perceptions are high and culture of transparency doesn’t exist, poor economic growth and high-cost production are unavoidable, thus harming domestic economy and the people.
Looking at the year-over-year progress of Turkey in the Corruption Perception Index results since 1995, it is clear that the country has been at a standstill for the last 21 years. This demonstrates that corruption and problems with transparency have become deep-rooted issues specific to public sector and reveals that necessary steps for improvement have not been taken.
The results of the 2015 CPI draw attention to the existence of important deficiencies concerning the question of “transparency” in Turkey. In that regard, the results of the 2015 index should be interpreted as a dire need for progress on the fight against corruption and the issue of transparency, and that authorities should take solid steps regarding these issues as soon as possible.
The Methodology of the Corruption Perceptions Index
The Corruption Perception Index draws on data sources from 12 different studies by 11 international institutions specializing in governance and business climate analysis for 168 countries, and reflects the opinions of experts and businesspeople on public sector corruption. The Index has a scale from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean) in order to rank the countries.
Turkey’s score was identified by the contents and results of 8 surveys out of these 12 international surveys. These 8 surveys are: World Economic Forum EOS, Bertelsmann Foundation TI, IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, Bertelsmann Foundation SGI, World Justice Project ROL, PRS International Country Risk Guide, Economist Intelligence Unit, and IHS Global Insight.
For 2015 Corruption Perception Index TI page which includes infografics and detailed results, please click
