The most widely recognised measure of public-sector corruption, Transparency International’s corruption index (CPI), was released January 29, ranking Timor-Leste 105th least corrupt in the world.

Timor-Leste scored 36 from a possible 100, placing it just below Indonesia (38) and Thailand (36). Denmark was ranked the least corrupt nation in the world, just behind New Zealand.

Timor-Leste’s results represent a common trend across the Asia Pacific which Transparency International labelled as a  region showing “little to no progress on anti-corruption.” 

Since 2017, several countries in the region have declined by two or three points, including Vietnam (33), Maldives (31) and Bangladesh (26).

“Unfortunately, these counties share several common factors that work to counteract anti-corruption efforts. These include a lack of strange independent democratic institutions that can deliver checks and balances, and a strong-handed central government that limits of suppresses free and open media and citizen participation,” Delia Ferreira Rubio, Chair of Transparency International, said in a statement.

“As the performance of democratic institutions weakens and political rights decline, corruption festers and grows,” Rubio said.

The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses of a scale of 10 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

More than two-thirds of countries scored below 50 in this year’s CPI, with an average score of 43.

“It reveals that the continued failure of most countries to significantly control corruption is contributing to a crisis in democracy around the world. While there are exceptions, the data shows that despite some progress, most countries are failing to make serious inroads against corruption,” Rubio said.