The Transparency International released the annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2024 on February 11, 2025. Bangladesh has scored 23 out of 100, one point less than 2023, and has been ranked 151st, two steps lower than its rank in 2023. The 2024 score is Bangladesh’s worst since 2012, which has given us three disappointing designations. We are placed among countries that are “losing control of corruption”; we are also among countries that having scored below 50 are considered to have a “serious corruption problem”; and scoring 20 points lower than the global average of 43 qualifies us as having a “very serious corruption problem.” Bangladesh’s score is 14th lowest among 180 countries or territories included in the index. It remains the second lowest in South Asia, after only Afghanistan, and fifth lowest in the Asia-Pacific region.
More specifically, our 2024 score is three points lower than 2012, 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018, and five points lower than the highest score of 28 achieved in 2017. Bangladesh is the only South Asian country other than Sri Lanka that has lost points. Notably, both were under the worst form of authoritarianism ousted by people’s power. Furthermore, Bangladesh’s performance is nine points worse than the average for the 59 authoritarian regimes in the world. It is also six points lower than the average for the 33 countries with the lowest HDI, and six points lower than the 27 countries that were categorised in 2023 as having closed civil society space. Equally embarrassingly, our score is 10 points lower than the average for Sub-Saharan Africa that performs worst as per the regional comparative analysis of the index.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star’s Google News channel. As on previous occasions, no country has scored 100 percent, and hence corruption remains a global problem. The CPI 2024 also reveals that most countries have made little or no progress in tackling public sector corruption since 2012. Compared to 2023, overall global scores have worsened. For 93 countries, the score has declined, compared to 63 in 2023. As many as 122 countries (67.77 percent) have scored below 50, and 101 countries (56.11 percent) below the global average of 43. This means that over 80 percent of the world’s population live with a “very serious corruption problem.”
Over a quarter of the countries or territories (47) got their lowest scores yet since 2012. Low-scoring countries like Bangladesh, Brazil, Cuba, Russia and Sri Lanka are joined in this club by high scorers like France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, and the United States. The rot at the top suggests a global trend of discrimination. However, 25 countries, including Bhutan, South Korea, Laos and Saudi Arabia, have scored their highest since 2012. For the seventh year in a row, Denmark has topped the list, having scored 90, followed by Finland (88) and Singapore (84).
Among Bangladesh’s South Asian neighbours, Bhutan continues to be the best performer, having scored 72, which is four points higher than that in 2023, and nine points higher than that in 2012. In the rest of the region, scores remained well below the global average: India and Maldives (38), Nepal (34), Sri Lanka (32), Pakistan (27) and Afghanistan (17). All South Asian countries except Bhutan have scored less compared to 2023. However, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, formerly the two most authoritarian states in the region, have scored their lowest in 12 years since 2012, whereas all other South Asian countries have gained compared to 2012, except Pakistan, which remains unchanged. Among Bangladesh’s non-South Asian neighbours, South Korea scored 64, Vietnam 40, Indonesia 37, Thailand 34, and Laos and Philippines 33.
This year’s worst performers are South Sudan, at the bottom with a score of 8, followed by Somalia (9), Venezuela (10), Syria (12), Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya and Yemen (13), Nicaragua (14), North Korea and Sudan (15), Myanmar and Haiti (16), Afghanistan, Burundi and Turkmenistan (17), and Tajikistan (19).
The key message of CPI 2024 is that corruption is more than a developmental challenge. An outcome of unaccountable abuse of power, deepening corruption is a threat to democracy, stability, human rights, and justice. Though high-scoring countries appear to have lower levels of corruption, financial hubs in many of these countries operate as demand-side facilitators of money laundering that benefits such countries at the expense of lower scorers. The highest beneficiaries of Bangladesh’s corruption in terms of money laundering are ironically among the top performers, like the third-ranked Singapore (84), fifth-ranked Switzerland (80), Australia 10th (77), Canada 15th (75), Hong Kong 17th (74), United Kingdom 20th (71), UAE 23rd (68), United States 28th (65), and Malaysia 57th (50).
Leading rich countries of North America and Europe are also seeing a decline in scores indicating a failure to implement anti-corruption commitments. This is particularly reflected in terms of delivering their global funding commitments to address climate change for the worst-affected countries. For the same reason, many of them are also facing domestic challenges at multiple levels, including climate crisis and erosion of rule of law and public services.
It is important that the anti-corruption drive is mainstreamed in national and international development policies across the world in order to control and prevent its devastating effects on development, democracy, human rights, and justice. The impacts of the failure to do so were experienced by Bangladesh over the 15 and a half years of authoritarian rule.
The data period for CPI 2024 witnessed the peak of kleptocracy-driven authoritarianism in the country. Instead of any meaningful action against corruption, political and governance systems were used to promote and protect corruption. Widespread public sector corruption further intensified particularly in public contracting and project implementation. No effective action was taken despite concrete, evidence-based exposures of high-level corruption and money laundering. State institutions mandated to control corruption, including the ACC, public administration, law enforcement and judicial institutions, continued to operate under partisan political influence, which was a key factor behind the poor performance.
Even after the fall of the authoritarian regime, evidence of the continued abuse of power and corrupt practices, including extortion and turf war for capture of corruption hotspots, persisted through the data period in both political and governance spaces. Risks also persisted in terms of freedom of dissent, free media and civic space, which may have been reflected in the CPI performance of Bangladesh.
The way out is no rocket science. The recommendations of the Anti-Corruption Reform Commission must be implemented with a specific focus on the ACC’s true independence and accountability. Examples must be set of concrete success in holding to account high-level corrupt individuals and entities on a priority basis. State institutions must be depoliticised to ensure professional integrity and excellence, especially at the ACC, bureaucracy, law enforcement and judicial services.
Effective measures must be in place to salvage the crucial sectors of public interest from the clutches of policy capture, conflict of interest and partisan political and other influences. These areas include public procurement, banking, trade, power and energy, health, education, land, and infrastructure. The freedom of media, civil society, and people at large must be ensured for the unrestricted disclosure and criticism of corruption and those involved. Above all, our political and bureaucratic culture and practices must be transformed to be free from treating political and public positions as a licence to private gains.
Dr Iftekharuzzaman is executive director at Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).
Views expressed in this article are the author’s own.
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