Israel down to 36th place in Transparency International's 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index

Israel is ranked 25th out of the 34 OECD member states, ahead of only Turkey, Italy, and Greece
 
Transparency International, a Germany-based NGO that monitors corruption, has published an index ranking 183 countries according to how corrupt their public service is perceived to be.
 
Israel has fallen to 36th place in Transparency International's 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index, tying with St. Vincent and the Grenadines, down from 30th place in 2010 and its lowest-ever ranking since it was first included in the index. Israel's score fell from 6.1 points in 2010 to 5.8 points in 2011.
 
The index scores 183 countries and territories from 0 (highly corrupt) to 10 (very clean) based on perceived levels of public sector corruption. It uses data from 17 surveys that look at factors such as enforcement of anti-corruption laws, access to information and conflicts of interest.
 
Two thirds of ranked countries score less than 5. New Zealand ranks first with a score of 9.4 points, followed by Finland and Denmark. Sweden, Singapore, Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland and Canada. Japan is ranked 14th, the UK is in 16th place, and the US is in 24th place. Somalia and North Korea (included in the index for the first time), are last.
 
Israel is ranked 25th out of the 34 OECD member states, ahead of only Turkey, Italy, and Greece. In the Middle East, Israel is perceived to be more corrupt than Qatar (in 22nd place), the United Arab Emirates (28th place), and Cyprus (30th place).