Brazil Progresses Little in Corruption Rankings and Scores Below Global Average

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Transparency International released this Thursday, January 28th, the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) it has published since 1995.

The index ranges from 0 to 100, in which 0 means that the country is perceived as “highly corrupt” and 100 represents a country perceived as “very clean”. Scores below 50 are indicative of serious levels of corruption.

The score for Brazil (38) remained below the average for Latin America (41) and the world (43) and far from the G20 countries average (54) and the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) (64).

The study points out that Brazil climbed three points (it was 35 in 2019). However, the increase is not statistically significant, given that the survey’s error margin is 4.1 points plus or minus.

The increase pushed Brazil from 106th position to 94th, in a ranking that considers 180 nations and territories. The country is behind Colombia, Turkey and China, for instance.

The score achieved by Brazil in 2020 was the same as in 2015. It represents the 3rd worst result since official records began. With the exception of 2012 and 2014, the country has always stood below the global average (43).

According to Bruno Brandão, Transparency International’s executive director in Brazil, the country continues stagnant in the CPI due to setbacks in the anti-corruption agenda.

“Brazil continues to fail in promoting reforms that truly address the structural causes of its systemic corruption. Instead, the country is experiencing an extremely worrying process of dismantling its institutional capacity to deal with corruption,” he stated.

On Brazil’s challenges in tackling corruption, the organization highlighted the reports “Brazil: Setbacks in the Legal and Institutional Anti-Corruption Frameworks,” originally published in 2019 and updated in late 2020.

The studies criticize Brazil for the loss of independence of oversight bodies and for governmental attacks on civil society and the press.

CPI GLOBAL DATA

The countries with the best scores in 2020 were Denmark and New Zealand (both with 87 points), Finland (86), Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland (the three with 85 points).

At the other end, the nations with the worst scores were Venezuela (16), Yemen (15), Syria (13), South Sudan (12) and Somalia (9).

In the Americas, the best performances were recorded by Canada (77), Uruguay (71), Chile and the United States (both with 67 points), and Barbados (64).

The worst scores were attributed to Guatemala (25), Honduras (24), Nicaragua (22), Haiti (18) and Venezuela (15).

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