Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan has received a low rating on the level of corruption in Transparency International`s assessment.
In its report covering 180 countries, the group rated the country 158th in the world on the spread of corrupt practices, although it noted the government`s efforts in fighting corruption and progress achieved in this area.
According to the Corruption Perception Index 2008, the TI "remains very concerned" about the low score of Azerbaijan over the past two years: 2.1 in 2007 and 1.9 in 2008. The country demonstrated a steady increase of its ranking from 1.8 in 2003 to its peak of 2.4 in 2006, because of the number of the anticorruption measures adopted by the government and the efforts undertaken by the civil society.
Specifically, the government is implementing the National Strategy for Increasing Transparency and Combating Corruption for 2007-2010, adopted with the considerable inputs from the civil society and international organizations, which makes it significantly more effective than the first National Anticorruption Program for 2004-2006. There are visible improvements in the country`s legislative framework.
On the institutional level Azerbaijan maintains a state commission for combat against corruption and a special department on combat against corruption within the Prosecutor`s Office, as well as the government and civil society anticorruption network, designed to coordinate joint efforts of all the network participants.
The TI also said the special anti-corruption efforts of the government and civil society of Azerbaijan that have been appreciated by a number of world institutions, have not yet resonated with the wider, broader international business community whose perception changes always with some delays, therefore, the national chapter regrets that the existing methodology did not permit for some of the above positive reforms to be reflected in the CPI and thus positioned Azerbaijan in a higher position on the scale, which it deserves.
TI Azerbaijan emphasized that it believes in "the good direction in which reforms are moving" and supports all such endeavors of the national leadership.
In its comparison of countries on regions, the TI rated Azerbaijan 17th.
Myanmar and Somali are the most corrupt countries, according to the TI. The two countries received a rating of 1.5 points.
Denmark, Sweden and New Zealand were rated as the least corrupt, with the 9.3 ranking.