The Corruption Perceptions Index released by the Transparency International for 2017 has showed that the level of corruption in Turkey has been worsened with a 10 point drop since 2013 and placing it 81st on the list of 180 countries.
According to the index, the average score has been 43 last year with over two-thirds of the countries analysed scoring below 50. Turkey’s score of 40 took the country’s run of worsening corruption to five straight years, with a ten point drop placing it 81st on the overall list.
The index “ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, (and) uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.”
With its record Turkey’s ranking has become lower than all 28 European Union member countries in the list. With a rating of 49 points the index’s least corrupt country is listed as New Zealand. Transparency International noted the worldwide rise of corruption, which it linked particularly to worsening press freedom and freedom of expression around the world.
Turkey is the biggest jailer of journalists in the world. The most recent figures documented by the SCF has showed that 241 journalists and media workers are in jails as of February 16, 2018, most in pre-trial detention languishing in notorious Turkish prisons without even a conviction. Of those in Turkish prisons, 208 are arrested pending trial, only 33 journalists remain convicted and serving time in Turkish prisons. An outstanding detention warrants remain for 140 journalists who live in exile or remain at large in Turkey. Detaining tens of thousands of people over alleged links to the Gülen movement, the government also closed down more than 180 media outlets after the controversial coup attempt.
Moreover, the dismissal of around 120,000 public officials and legal professionals under the ongoing state of emergency made it “nearly impossible for (Turkey’s) public sector to perform effectively”, according to the analysis.
Transparency International also pointed out the scope for corruption in public projects, saying “public procurements are not subject to the public procurement law and 28 percent of those subject to the law are not open tenders.”
The lack of transparency in public spending was also alarming, said the report, noting that “all public enterprises with a total value of more than US$40 billion are concentrated under the Turkish Wealth Fund which has not published any figures or activity reports in the last two years.”
