Middle East corruption rankings: Syria most corrupt, UAE least, Turkey slipped

Syria is the worst, the United Arab Emirates performs the best when it comes to combatting corruption in the Middle East and North Africa region, while Turkey has witnessed a further decline of its score from 96 to 101 in global rankings, according to Transparency International report released on Tuesday.

The international corruption watchdog released its 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, reviewing the track record in transparency and combating corruption of 180 countries. The majority of countries in the Middle East and North Africa have dropped in their ranking, with the average of the region hitting a new low of 38 out of 100 on a scale where a zero score indicates a highly corrupt state. 

“States across the Middle East and North Africa are struggling to achieve tangible results against corruption. No country has registered a significant improvement on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in the last decade,” the watchdog said.

In 2022, Oman has seen the biggest drop by 8 points from 2021. The Gulf country is now ranked 69 on the global corruption meter. Israel, in turn, has been a top performer with its score climbing 4 places to 31, the index showed.

Middle East and North African countries’ scores in combating corruption from lowest to highest are as follows:

Syria 

Yemen

Libya 

Iraq  

Lebanon 

Iran

Egypt 

Algeria 

Morocco 

Tunisia

Kuwait 

Oman 

Bahrain 

Jordan

Saudi Arabia

Qatar 

Israel 

UAE  

The Index categorizes Turkey under the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region that also includes Russia and Ukraine. Turkey landed at 101st place in the global rankings, falling from 96th and dropping 2 points from 2021. Transparency International said the country has been witnessing a “significant decline” in combating corruption over the past years. 

The watchdog ranked Ukraine, which has become one of the few countries that recorded improvement in its region, at 116th and Russia at 137th.