Kuwait Times

Published Date: September 26, 2009

KUWAIT: According to the Transparency International's yearly Corruption Perceptions Index, which measures perceived levels of public-sector corruption in over 170 countries, Kuwait has regressed five places internationally. The index is published by Transparency International, an anti-graft watchdog, and is included in the organization's Global Corruption Report 2009: Corruption and the Private Sector that was released in Berlin on Wednesday.

Kuwait came in 65th place in the index, tied with Cuba, while it came in seventh place among Arab countries. Kuwait's position remained the same in their previous index after failing to make any new steps to fight corruption.

The report mainly discussed the issue of transparency and the governance of the wealth of countries around the world. In that regard, the report classified the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) as among the lowest in transparency, especially because local regulations ban the assets of the main funds from being published. The KIA has failed to reveal the exact volume of their assets since June 2007, Al-Qabas reported.

In the report, Qatar remained on the top spot among Arab countries in the index after it progressed four spots internationally. It was followed by the United Arab Emirates despite regressing by one spot on the international scale.

Meanwhile, Oman made the most significant jump after leaping 21 places to attain the 41st spot. It is third among Arab countries, ahead of Bahrain and Jordan. Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden came tied for first place as the world's least corrupt countries with 9.3 points.

According to a Transparency International press release circulated on the occasion of the report's launch, globally "the massive scale of global corruption resulting from bribery, price-fixing cartels and undue influence on public policy is costing billions and obstructing the path towards sustainable economic growth.