From Armenia in brief: Perception of corruption in Armenia continues to rise

by M. T.

Published: Friday November 20, 2009

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According to Transparency International's latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) of 180 nations, Armenia was in the 120th position, along with Bolivia, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Vietnam.

The CPI table shows a country's ranking and score, the number of surveys used to determine the score, and the confidence range of the scoring. It scores countries on a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 is a perception that the country is highly corrupt and 10 indicates low levels of corruption perceived. The CPI score indicates the perceived level of public-sector corruption in a country or territory. It is based on up to 13 independent surveys. Not all surveys include all countries.

Armenia's CPI was 2.7. The score was based upon seven surveys conducted in the country; it had scored 2.9 in 2008.

"I must point out that as a rule, a change of up to 0.3 points is not deemed significant within the framework of this study," said Amalia Kostanian, chairperson of Transparency's Armenian affiliate, the Anti-Corruption Center (ACC). According to RFE/RL, Ms. Kostanian stressed the fact that the watchdog found no decreases in the scale of bribery and other corrupt practices in the country for the past decade. "In fact, we have been stagnating since 2003," she said during a press conference where she presented the latest CPI findings.