Taiwan ranked 34th among 179 countries in this year's Corruption Perception Index (CPI), the Taiwan chapter of Transparency International said yesterday.
"This year's ranking is close to that of last year, but the grade slightly declined from 5.9 last year to 5.7 this year," Chilik Yu (余致力), executive director of the non-governmental agency's Taiwan chapter, said at a press conference.
Taiwan's ranking places it alongside Macau and the United Arab Emirates, Yu said.
Taiwan has made little progress with its CPI over the last 10 years, with its ranking swinging between No. 25 and No. 35.
"Taiwan is regarded as a `middle integrity' country in the CPI," Yu said.
In Asia, Singapore ranked No. 4, Hong Kong No. 14, Japan No. 17, South Korea No. 43 and China No. 72.
This year's survey saw a tie between Denmark, New Zealand and Finland for the No. 1 spot.
Thomas Peng (
Peng cited prosecutors' indictments of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Democratic Progressive Party Chairman Yu Shyi-kun and National Security Council Secretary-General Mark Chen (陳唐山) on suspicion of misusing their special allowance funds.
However, Su Yiu-chen (蘇友辰), a Transparency International Taiwan consultant and an attorney, said the issue of special allowance funds was a matter of convention that gave officials considerable flexibility.
Prosecutors' abuse of their power to indict the officials has jeopardized the country's image of integrity both domestically and internationally, Su said.
Chilik Yu said the CPI assessment was based on the nation's performance in the past two to three years.
Taiwan last year ranked No. 34 among 163 countries, No. 32 in 2005 among 159 countries, No. 35 in 2004 among 146 countries, No. 30 in 2003 among 133 countries, No. 29 in 2002 among 102 countries and No. 28 in 2000 among 90 countries.
He said the CPI ranked 179 countries this year on the perceived degree of corruption among officials and politicians.
The ranking is a composite index which draws on 16 polls and surveys from 10 independent institutions, he said.
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