Barbados Tops Caribbean In Anti-Corruption Report

by Phillip Morton, Investors Offshore.com

09 December 2011

The Caribbean arm of Transparency International has published its 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2011, providing insight into the levels of corruption present in Caribbean territories, including those with international financial centres.

In the report, Barbados scored most favourably among Caribbean territories, and was placed sixteenth of the 183 nations included in this year's report, scoring 7.8 out of 10. Newly added this year, the Bahamas was seen as enforcing the second most transparent regime in the region, and was placed 21st overall, with 7.3.

Other notable territories on the Index for the first time included St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines, ranked 25th and 36th, respectively. Dominica was ranked 44th, followed by Jamaica in 86th, which this year leapfrogged Trinidad and Tobago, now placed mid-table in 91st. Of the eleven CARIFORUM Countries ranked, five were above the midpoint score of 5 points.

Countries were ranked based on perceptions of public-sector corruption. The survey is undertaken by international institutions with advice from senior resident business leaders and non-resident analysts. The CPI uses a basic form of indexing to arrive at a score ranging between 0, perceived to be the most corrupt, and 10, perceived to be the least corrupt.

In the global report, the country in receipt of the highest score in 2011 was New Zealand with a score of 9.5 with the poorest rank going to Somalia, with 1.0.

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