New rankings issued by the anti-corruption group Transparency International (TI)  listing Russia number 127 among 177 countries and territories on its new Corruption Perceptions Index appear to have gotten the attention of President Vladimir Putin, the Moscow Times reported.

 

As the survey results listing Russia in the bottom third in corruption fighting were announced on Tuesday, Putin  announced creation of an anti-corruption department in his administration.

The new department will have wide-ranging responsibilities, which will include verifying officials’ expense and income declarations and ensuring that law-enforcement authorities are alerted to possible corruption schemes in state organs, the Times reported in a separate story.

 

Elena Panfilova, the head of Transparency International’s Russian branch, said that efforts to strengthen state oversight would not be enough to solve the problem.

 

She said the government needed to develop channels to involve the public in fighting bribery and to provide more protection for persons who help uncover corruption.

 

Panfilova said Russia’s poor performance in the new 2013 ranking, (up from number 133 the previous year) indicated that little progress had been made.

Afghanistan, North Korea, and Somalia were listed by TI as having the most corrupt governments, while New Zealand and Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia, and Canada were the rated the most transparent.

 

The United States came in 19th, tied with Uruguay.

The Corruption Perceptions Index surveys analysts from government, business and civil society in an effort to determine the perceived level of corruption in each country.

Related Story: