Transparency International publishes the CPI 2024

On 11 February 2025, Transparency International ("TI") published the Corruption Perceptions Index 2024 ("CPI"). The CPI is the most widely used indicator of corruption worldwide and covers 180 countries. It scores and ranks countries/territories based on how corrupt a country's public sector is perceived to be by experts and business executives.

A country/territory's score indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0-100, where 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 100 means that a country is perceived as very clean. A country's rank indicates its position relative to the other countries/territories included in the index. It is a composite index, relying on 13 data sources from 12 different institutions, based on data published in the previous two years. For a country/territory to be included in the ranking, it must be included in a minimum of three of the CPI's data sources.

Best and worst performers

For the seventh year in a row, Denmark remains at the top of the list of the "cleanest" countries, with a score of 90, followed by Finland and Singapore with scores of 88 and 84 respectively. New Zealand moved out of the top three positions for the first time since 2012, to fourth place, with a score of 83.

Meanwhile, countries experiencing conflict or with highly restricted freedoms and weak democratic institutions dominate the bottom of the index. The worst performers were South Sudan, Somalia and Venezuela, with scores of 8, 9 and 10 respectively. Sub-Saharan Africa (with an average score of 33) remained the worst performing region for 2024, closely followed by the Arab States (with an average score of 34).

TI's report also contains details of the "most significant movers" for the period 2015 to 2024, highlighting significant improvements or deteriorations over the period. In the former category, Bahrain, Cote d'Ivoire and Moldova have all shown significant positive movement, whereas jurisdictions including Eswatini, Austria and Russia have all shown a significant decline.

The UK

The United Kingdom is jointly ranked the 20^th "cleanest" country this year, along with Japan, maintaining its score of 71 from last year. However, its score has fallen by 11 points since 2017 (and the United Kingdom has dropped from 11^th to 20^th place on the CPI since 2021). Daniel Bruce, Chief Executive of TI UK, said that: "While a change in political leadership has brought some positive steps, the problems exposed by recent scandals – from PPE procurement to questions over political funding – demonstrate why more fundamental reform is needed."

Going forward, TI recommends that the UK government:

1. Reduce political campaign spending limits and place a £10,000 cap on donations; increase transparency over the source of funds entering politics; and strengthen the Electoral Commission.
2. Review the "revolving door" between public and private office and increase transparency over lobbying and government decisions. This could be delivered through an Ethics and Integrity Commission.
3. Put the House of Lord's Appointment Commission on a statutory footing and empower it to vet all nominations for suitability and propriety.

Global trends

Overall, 32 countries' rankings have improved for the period 2012 to 2024, 47 have declined and the remaining 101 have seen their ranking remain the same.

Two thirds of countries scored below the mid-point of 50 on the CPI for 2024 (the global average score was 43). TI have reported that the CPI highlights the stark contrast between nations with strong, independent institutions and free, fair elections, and those with repressive authoritarian regimes. According to TI's analysis, full democracies have a CPI average score of 73, while flawed democracies average 47 and non-democratic regimes just 33. As per the report, "this highlights that although some non-democratic countries might be perceived as managing certain forms of corruption, the broader picture shows that democracy and strong institutions are crucial for combatting corruption fully and effectively".

The 2024 CPI Report focuses on the impact of corruption on global climate action, and the important role of governments, international organisations and businesses in prioritising the integration of robust anti-corruption measures into climate finance, policies and projects. Such measures would help to address: (i) undue influence on climate policies and decision-making; (ii) embezzlement and misuse of climate funds; (iii) weak environmental protection via regulatory oversight; and (iv) threats to activists.

Implications for businesses

The CPI source data captures a number of manifestations of public sector corruption including bribery, diversion of public funds, access to information on public affairs/government activities, and the ability of governments to contain corruption in the public sector. While there is no indicator which measures objective national levels of corruption directly and exhaustively, the CPI contains the informed views of relevant stakeholders, which generally correlate highly with objective indicators. Therefore, many companies use the CPI as part of their corruption risk analysis, for example in risk assessments and third-party due diligence. Where the CPI has been integrated into relevant processes and procedures, scores should be rechecked annually to ensure they align with the most recent version of the CPI.

Many UK-based companies operate in jurisdictions which score poorly on the CPI, and which may therefore be regarded as high risk from a corruption perspective. For example, within the EU, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary score 46, 43 and 41 respectively. Regulators and enforcement authorities (such as the UK Serious Fraud Office) actively investigate and prosecute corporate criminal conduct, primarily in high-risk jurisdictions. Companies should therefore ensure that they carry out a risk assessment which appropriately takes account of jurisdictional risk, and that the level and nature of their anti-bribery and corruption controls is tailored to this risk.

If you have any questions or concerns about any bribery or corruption matters potentially affecting your business, including in relation to the adequacy of your anti-bribery and corruption policies and procedures, please feel free to contact us.