Albania ranks as the 104th cleanest country for corruption in the world. This is according to the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index 2020, seen by Exit prior to its publication. Albania has dropped a total of 23 places in the previous three years, only recovering two places this year.
The scale which measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption, gave Albania just 36 points out of a possible 100, placing it towards the “highly corrupt” end of the spectrum as opposed to “very clean”.
The average score for Europe and the EU was 66/100, 30 points better than what Albania achieved. Albania’s score did improve slightly on last year, but not enough to stop it from falling further down the list.
Transparency International then ranks the countries based on their score. Albania was the 104th cleanest country in the world, out of 179. This means it’s considered more corrupt than Columbia (92), India (86), China (78), Tunisia (69), and Jamaica (69).
While it is less corrupt than North Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of its regional neighbors, it was surpassed by Serbia, Montenegro, and Greece. Kosovo was ranked alongside it 104, out of 179 countries.
Top of the list in the first position was Denmark and New Zealand with scores of 88. They were followed by Finland, Singapore, Sweden, and Switzerland who all scored 85, and Norway which scored 84.
Between 2013 and 2016, Albania noted a gradual improvement in corruption levels climbing to a semi-respectable 83 out of 176 countries, but this progress was reversed drastically in the following years. In 2017, Albania fell to number 91 a drop of eight places, followed by a drop of another eight places in 2018.
Then, in 2019 it fell seven places, demonstrating that corruption in Albania is getting worse under the leadership of Prime Minister Edi Rama, despite a number of supposed anti-corruption reforms.
This year, it fell once again.
TI noted that many of the countries failed to address corruption in any significant way and remained “stagnant” in their score.
In their executive summary, TI noted that “This year’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) paints a grim picture of the state of corruption worldwide. While most countries have made little to no progress in tackling corruption in nearly a decade, more than two-thirds of countries score below 50. Our analysis shows corruption not only undermines the global health response to COVID-19, but contributes to a continuing crisis of democracy.”
