BANGKOK, Jan 29 — Transparency International (TI) gave Thailand a score of 36 for transparency, equal to its score in 2019, but the country’s place fell to 104th last year due to bribery, Thai news agency (TNA) reported.
Announcing the transparency performance, Niwatchai Kasemmongkol, deputy secretary-general of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, said TI reported its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2020 covering 180 countries.
Denmark and New Zealand ranked 1st with their score of 88.
With the 36-point score, Thailand ranked 104th (compared with 101st in 2019) worldwide and 5th in ASEAN together with Vietnam.
In ASEAN, Singapore ranked 1st with a score of 85, followed by Brunei (60), Malaysia (51) and Indonesia (37). After Thailand and Vietnam, the Philippines got a score of 34, Laos 29, Myanmar 28 and Cambodia 21.
What capped Thailand’s transparency score last year was the 41-point score the country obtained from IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, down from 45 points it received in 2019.
The lower score resulted from respondents’ complaints that authorities received bribes from gambling den operators and human smugglers and did not face strict legal action.
Source: BERNAMA