Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index

Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index

The annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), first released in 1995, is the best known of TI’s tools. The CPI 2006 ranks 163 countries. In 2005, the CPI included 159 countries. It has been widely credited with putting TI and the issue of corruption on the international policy agenda. The CPI ranks more than 150 countries by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. The Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index ranks countries in terms of the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians. It is a composite index, a poll of polls, drawing on corruption-related data from expert and business surveys carried out by a variety of independent and reputable institutions. The CPI reflects views from around the world, including those of experts who are living in the countries evaluated. Transparency International commissions the CPI from Johann Graf Lambsdorff, a university professor based in Passau, Germany.

The Transparency International defines corruption as the abuse of public office for private gain. The surveys used in compiling the CPI ask questions that relate to the misuse of public power for private benefit or questions that probe the strength of anti-corruption policies, thereby encompassing both administrative and political corruption.

The CPI 2006 draws on 12 different polls and surveys from 9 independent

institutions. TI strives to ensure that the sources used are of the highest quality and

that the survey work is performed with complete integrity. To qualify, the data must

be well documented and sufficient to permit a judgment on its reliability. All sources

must provide a ranking of nations and must measure the overall extent of corruption.

This condition excludes surveys which mix corruption with other issues, such as

political instability or nationalism for instance.

The expertise reflected in the CPI scores draws on an understanding