Somalia, Myanmar and Afghanistan have been named the most corrupt countries in the world in a report compiled by a civil society organisation.

At the other end of the scale, the UK failed to make it into the list of the ten least-corrupt countries of the 182 evaluated, as the phone hacking scandal tarnished the reputation of the British media. The report, compiled by Transparency International, revealed that there are “too many areas of corruption vulnerability in the UK public sector”.

“This phone hacking scandal has shone an awkward spotlight on undercurrents of corruption in key UK institutions,” Transparency International UK director Chandu Krishnan told Yahoo! News.

“It is clear that there is systemic complacency about corruption in the UK, even if the problem is not endemic. The Government needs the courage to admit that many checks and balances have failed,” he added. “Instead of a proliferation of inquiries we need urgent action to put in place policies that will prevent such a crisis from happening again and restore public trust in our key institutions.

“The UK is complacent about corruption. This has allowed a culture of impunity to develop, in which corruption is not seriously analysed or investigated, and individuals have behaved unethically in the belief that they would not or should not be held to account.”

The report revealed that despite the continued lack of transparency within Britain, the UK Bribery Act has marginally improved the nation’s international rating. New Zealand was listed as the least corrupt nation while Italy remained poorly placed at 69th, below Ghana, Rwanda and Oman. Transparency International ranks the countries on their perceived levels of corruption within the public sector.


5 most corrupt countries (source: Transparency International)

1. Somalia
2. North Korea
3. Myanmar
4. Afghanistan
5. Uzbekistan, Sudan, Turkmenistan (tied)

5 least corrupt countries

1. New Zealand
2. Denmark
3. Finland
4. Sweden
5. Singapore

Source Yahoo news.