India slips 5 points in global bribery risk rankings

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, November 17

India has slipped five points in the global bribery risk rankings settling at the 82nd spot among 194 nations analysed for compliance risks businesses face internationally.

The TRACE Bribery Risk Matrix (TRACE Matrix) published on Wednesday has been measuring business bribery risk since 2014 and assigns an overall country risk score based on the combined and weighted score of four domains — business interactions with government; anti-bribery deterrence and enforcement; government and civil service transparency; and capacity for civil society oversight, including the media role.

India slipped from the 77th rank in 2020 to 82nd in 2021 with the country’s score being a high of 47 on the domain of business interactions with the government; 52 on anti-bribery deterrence and enforcement), 36 on civil service transparency and 43 on civil oversight.

Contrastingly, the world’s most corruption-free country with the least business bribery risk has a score of 1 on the domain of business interaction with the government; 1 on anti-bribery deterrence, 6 on civil service transparency and 1 on civil and media oversight.

Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and New Zealand are the top five ranked nations on the TRACE matrix and the least corrupt societies. A country’s low score on the domain of business interaction with government indicates a low opportunity for bribery due to minimal interface with the system.

The highest bribe risk worldwide is in North Korea, ranked last on the table, followed by Turkmenistan, Eritrea and Venezuela. China slipped nine points on the rankings from 126 in 2020 to 135 in 2021.