Watchdog Highlights Persistent Corruption in Balkans

Transparency International on Wednesday published its annual global report on perceived corruption in society, indicating that governments in Balkan states have a lot of work to do to eradicate graft, with Macedonia singled out as one of the countries in which the situation has significantly worsened over the year.

The research for the Corruption Perceptions Index 2016, ranks a total of 176 countries from 0 (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be the least corrupt), according to expert assessments and opinion surveys.

Of the Balkan states, Kosovo's score is the worst at 36, closely followed by Macedonia with 37 and both Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania at 39.

EU member Bulgaria scored 41 and Serbia 42.

The Balkan states with the lowest perceived level of corruption are Montenegro with 45 and two other EU member states, Romania with 48 and Croatia with 49.

Nevertheless, Kosovo and Albania improved the most from the previous year's index, improving by three points each.

Romania and Serbia improved by two points each, while Bosnia and Montenegro improved by one point.

Bulgaria recorded the same number of points as last year, while Croatia's score fell by two points.

Macedonia, whose rating fell by five points, is listed among the ten states which recorded the biggest annual fall in the Corruption Perceptions Index globally.

Globally, the states with the least perceived corruption are Denmark and New Zealand with 90 points, followed by Finland with 89.

Somalia with ten points, South Sudan with 11 and North Korea with 12 points are the states with the highest perceived level of corruption in the world.

The Transparency International report warned that globally, "systemic corruption and...