Nepal’s position on the latest Corruption Perception Index has been downgraded from that of last year by four places. The country is now placed 117th place among 180 countries and territories surveyed in this year’s Corruption Perceptions Index 2020 released on Thursday.

The annual report of Transparency International, a global anti-corruption group based in Berlin, publishes the perception of corruption in a country. In the 2019 report, it had ranked 113th.  

This is a significant drop in Nepal ranking, especially when it had managed to move up 11 spots up in the annual of 2019 compared to 2018 when it had been ranked 124th.

This year Nepal’s score is 33. The index ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, drawing on 13 expert assessments and surveys of business executives. It uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is most corrupt and 100 is least corrupt.

In South Asia, while Bhutan is the highest-ranked at 24th place, Nepal is behind Maldives (75th), India (86th), Sri Lanka (94th) and Pakistan (124th). Bangladesh (146th) and Afghanistan (165th) trail behind Nepal in the region.

With a score of 88, New Zealand continues to be one of the two top performers on the CPI in the world, according to the latest report.

Denmark too has a score of 88 points. Syria, Somalia and South Sudan come at the bottom, with 14, 12 and 12 points respectively.

In the Asia-Pacific, New Zealand is followed by Singapore (85), Australia (77) and Hong Kong (77) while Cambodia (21), Afghanistan (19) and North Korea (18) earn the lowest scores in the region.

The anti-corruption group in its press release has said widespread corruption is weakening Covid-19 response, threatening global economic recovery and contributing to democratic backsliding amid the pandemic.

Nepal, which is reeling under a multi-sectoral impact of Covid-19 pandemic, also witnessed irregularities while responding to the pandemic. There were reports of corruption while procuring medical supplies from China.

“Covid-19 is not just a health and economic crisis. It is a corruption crisis. And one that we are currently failing to manage,” Delia Ferreira Rubio, Chair of Transparency International, was quoted as saying in its press release. “The past year has tested governments like no other in memory, and those with higher levels of corruption have been less able to meet the challenge. But even those at the top of the CPI must urgently address their role in perpetuating corruption at home and abroad.”