India slips five spots in global bribery risk rankings
The TRACE Bribery Risk Matrix, the internationally-accepted ranking based on business bribery risks, has placed India at 82 in the latest ranking, down five places from last year.
From 77th last year, India has dropped 82nd among 194 countries, territories, and autonomous and semi-autonomous regions ranked based on business bribery risks, that is, the likelihood of bribe demands in business.
TRACE Bribery Risk Matrix, as the list is called, is compiled by TRACE, an anti-bribery standard-setting organisation, and is considered a gold standard globally. The data helps companies to assess the likely risk of bribe demands in each country and to design compliance and due diligence programmes tailored to that risk, TRACE Bribery Risk Matrix said in a statement.
According to the company’s website, the matrix measures business bribery risk score by using “a 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 role of the media”. The domain scores are derived from nine sub-domains, further explains the website.
The ranking system was originally developed in 2014 in collaboration with RAND Corporation, and has been updated annually by TRACE since 2016.
India at 82 has an overall risk score of 44. Though Vanuatu, Peru, Montenegro and North Macedonia also have the same risk scores, they are ranked 78 to 81, respectively, based on some of the specific risk factors, stated earlier.
The highest score by far, which means the worst score, of 62 for Inda is in the category measuring expectation of paying bribes in business interactions with government.
In the South Asian region, Bhutan is ranked best, at 62. The others are all below India.
As per the 2021 data, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Eritrea pose the highest commercial bribery risk (ranks 191 to 194), while Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland present the lowest (ranks 1 to 4).
The Bribery Risk Matrix statement, mentioned earlier, also said that over the past 10 years, the business bribery risk environment worsened significantly in countries that also experienced democratic backsliding: Egypt, Venezuela, Turkey, Poland and Hungary.
While, “[o]ver the past five years, the countries that have shown the greatest trend toward improvement in the factors underlying commercial bribery risk are Uzbekistan, the Gambia, Armenia, Malaysia and Angola”.
TRACE aggregates relevant data obtained from leading public interest and international organisations, including the United Nations, World Bank, V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg and World Economic Forum.
