Sri Lanka having shown progress in its ranking over last year in Transparency International’s (TI) annual global Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released yesterday is a significant feature.

Sri Lanka has gained 38 points and ranks 85^th among the 175 countries monitored by TI, whereas it had gained 37 points and ranked 91 last year.

The global Corruption Perception Index is based on expert opinion on state sector bribery and corruption. While there are points from 0 to 100 according to a country’s state sector bribery and corruption, the digit 0 means that the particular country’s state sector bribery and corruption is very high and 100 means the country’s state sector bribery and corruption is very low.

Sri Lanka has recorded a range less than 50. This means that further steps should be taken to minimize Sri Lanka’s state sector bribery and corruption.

Another significant feature is two-thirds of the countries among the 175 monitored by the 2014 Global CPI having gained less than 50 points.

While Denmark is the country with the lowest state sector bribery and corruption, the countries with the highest state sector bribery and corruption are Somalia and North Korea.