The latest Corruption Perceptions Index by watchdog Transparency International has found established democracies’ efforts against public-sector corruption to appear to be flagging, raising concern on developments in the United States, including the impact of US funding cuts.
The group said most countries are failing to keep corruption under control, with 122 out of the 182 nations and territories surveyed scoring less than 50 points. The global average last year was 42, down one point to the lowest in over a decade. Only 5 countries scored above 80 in 2025, down from 12 a decade ago.
The report lamented that “too often, we are seeing a failure of good governance and accountable leadership” and pointed to a “worrying trend of democracies seeing worsening perceived corruption.”
“While the data has yet to fully reflect developments in 2025, the use of public office to target and restrict independent voices such as NGOs and journalists, the normalization of conflicted and transactional politics, the politicization of prosecutorial decision making, and actions that undermine judicial independence, among many others, all send a dangerous signal that corrupt practices are acceptable,” the report said.
The organization measures experts’ perception of public sector corruption around the world, according to 13 data sources, including the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, and private risk and consulting companies.
Fifty countries’ scores have declined significantly since 2012, citing Hungary, Turkiye, and Nicaragua as among the biggest fallers.
On the other hand, there were improvements, as 31 countries have improved significantly, including Estonia, the Seychelles, and South Korea.
For 2025, the top place went to Denmark, with 89 points out of 100, followed by Finland and Singapore. At the bottom were South Sudan and Somalia with 9 points each, followed by Venezuela.
With the world looking like it is failing to keep corruption under control, especially with the rise of a new world order where abuse of power is normalized, or even glorified, the people of the Philippines have to continue fighting against it, as we cannot afford more failure of governance and accountable leadership in this country that has already struggled with the ill effects of corruption for decades.*
