India falls to 82nd spot in global bribery risk ranking

New Delhi: India has slipped to 82nd position in 2021, five places down from 77th rank last year, in a global list that measures business bribery risks.

The list by TRACE, an anti-bribery standard-setting organisation, measures business bribery risk in 194 countries, territories, and autonomous and semi-autonomous regions.

According to this year’s data, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Eritrea pose the highest commercial bribery risk, while Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and New Zealand present the lowest.

In 2020, India ranked 77 with a score of 45, while this year, the country stood at 82nd position with a score of 44, the data showed.

This score is based on four factors — business interactions with the government, anti-bribery deterrence and enforcement, government and civil service transparency, and capacity for civil society oversight which includes the role of the media.

India fared better than its neighbours – Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bangladesh. Bhutan, meanwhile, secured 62nd rank, the data showed.

The TRACE’s 2021 Bribery Risk Matrix, in a statement, said over the past 10 years, the business bribery risk environment worsened significantly in countries that also experienced democratic backsliding: Egypt, Venezuela, Turkey, Poland and Hungary.

“Over the past five years, the business bribery risk environment in the United States worsened significantly when compared with global trends. From 2020 to 2021, all of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries saw an increase in commercial bribery risk. Over the past five years, the countries that have shown the greatest trend toward improvement in the factors underlying commercial bribery risk are Uzbekistan, the Gambia, Armenia, Malaysia and Angola,” it said.

Vanuatu, Peru, Northare Macedonia and Montenegro also scored 44, the same as that of India, in the matrix.

The TRACE Bribery Risk Matrix measures the likelihood of bribe demands in 194 jurisdictions. It was originally published in 2014 to meet a need in the business community for more reliable and nuanced information about the risks of commercial bribery worldwide.

The TRACE Bribery Risk Matrix aggregates relevant data obtained from leading public interest and international organisations, including the United Nations, World Bank, V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg and World Economic Forum.

This data helps companies to assess the likely risk of bribe demands in each country and to design compliance and due diligence programs tailored to that risk, it said.