(MENAFN- Jordan News Agency) Amman, Nov. 24 (Petra) -- Jordan ranked 1st among Arab countries and 57th globally in anti-corruption efforts, according to the 2021 Global Corruption Index (GCI), which measures perceived public and private corruption.
According to the Global Risk Profile (GRP), which issued the report, the 4th edition of the GCI covers 196 countries and territories and provides a comprehensive overview of the state of corruption around the world based on 43 variables. Country results are presented on a 0-100 scale, where 0 corresponds to the lowest risk and 100 corresponds to the highest risk.
It said that the index comprises two sub-indexes: corruption and white collar crime, which was introduced this year, and is enriched with data on banking secrecy, sanctions, international cooperation and beneficial ownership transparency, among others. On the corruption sub-index, Jordan was the best performing in the region, with a low risk score at 38.04, while on the white collar crime sub-index, the Kingdom held a medium risk score.
This year's edition was based on data collected post-coronavirus. Although a causal effect cannot be inferred, the company reported, the health crisis is in parallel with a higher perception of corruption and an overall decline in government effectiveness between 2020 and 2021.
On a global scale, Finland ranked on top of the GCI, followed by Norway, New Zealand, Denmark and Sweden, while Jordan ranked first among Arab countries followed by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.
The Jordan New Agency (Petra) pinpointed 11 reasons why Jordan moved up nine places on the GCI, including Jordan's commitment to the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which was incorporated into the Jordanian Constitution, commitment to the Arab Anti-Corruption Convention, amending the Integrity and Anti-Corruption Commission law, expanding the definition of corruption crimes to include money laundering and terrorism crimes.
Additionally, the Kingdom's anti-graft efforts included introducing the Judicial Independence Law, actively addressing violations listed in the annual Audit Bureau report, shifting to an electronic government for payments and paperwork, receiving anonymous complaints on corruption to encourage citizens to report, issuing stiff and major court rulings, allocating specialized judicial bodies for corruption-related crimes, and bringing on more public prosecutors to crack-down on corruption.
MENAFN25112021000117011021ID1103247349
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.