Corruption Perception Index: BiH is still in danger

According to Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, BiH takes 83rd position, out of 176 countries, with a score of 39 on a scale of 0 to 100. The results show that there has been no progress in the recent years.

Sarajevo, 25th January 2017 – Transparency International in Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH) presented results of Corruption Perception Index (CPI) for 2016, on the basis of which Transparency International ranks the countries worldwide considering the perceived corruption level in public sector.
Bosnia and Herzegovina obtained a score of 39 this year, on the scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is the highest level of the perceived corruption and 100 the lowest level of corruption, and it was placed at 83rd position, out of 176 countries included in the research.
Comparing results in the last five years, and the scores which varied from 42 for 2012 and 2013, which was the highest score for this period, to 38 for 2015 and 39 for 2016, it is obvious that BiH has made no progress.
BiH shares the position on the CPI list with Albania, but it is still below Croatia (score 49 and 55th position), Montenegro (score 45 and 46th position) and Serbia (score 42 and 72nd position), while below BiH there are Macedonia, which deteriorated the most in the region (it now takes 90th position with a score of 37) and Kosovo (score 36 and 95th position).
This year’s CPI shows that more and more countries have a decline, which is a sign to take urgent measures for fighting against corruption, specifically in countries, such as BiH, in which systematic corruption at the highest government levels leads to increasing inequality in the distribution of power and wealth and gap between political elites and citizens.
Srdjan Blagovcanin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of TI BiH, emphasized that the lack of progress of BiH on CPI list, actually indicates the lack of progress in every reform process. „It is absolutely clear that without progress in anti-corruption fight there is no progress in the economic sphere, attracting investments or administration and judiciary reform. BiH continues its rapid movement along a very dangerous road.“, said Blagovcanin.
TI BiH pointed out at the presentation that the key problem of BiH is the extreme presence of political corruption, which requires solutions at the level of political system, i.e. reform of the way in which political parties and public officials function. Reform of judiciary system must be given a special priority, since it deals with the attempts of political control and increasing number of corruption affairs within judiciary.