UAE least corrupt in Mena region as Hungary slides in watchdog's report

Annual survey places UAE highest in Middle East region, and above France, Spain and Israel

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during a joint news conference with Bulgaria's prime minister Boyko Borissov in Sofia. Stoyan Nenov / Reuters

Hungary slid further down the global corruption league table this year, continuing a downward trend under right-wing leader Viktor Orban, who has exerted control over the courts and the media, watchdog Transparency International (TI) has said.

The UAE was the best-placed country in the Middle East and North Africa region, scoring 71, up from 66 last year. This placed it above a host of European countries, such as France (70), Spain (57) and Portugal (63), and nine points higher than Israel.

In terms of position in the world, the UAE is the first country from Mena to appear on the list at the 21th spot. Saudi Arabia, which has started a crackdown on corruption since November, is in tied-57th place with 49 points.

View the full list here.

The watchdog’s latest report on businesses’ perception of corruption put Hungary at just 45 on a scale of 0-100, three points below a year ago and a big slide of 10 points since 2012.

That means Hungary, a member of the European Union, is now perceived as more corrupt than Montenegro, a tiny former Yugoslav republic that has been told by Brussels it is not clean enough to join the bloc, TI Director General Carl Dolan told Reuters.

“It’s slightly ironic that the EU is saying to Montenegro, ‘You can’t be a member because you’re too corrupt’, and yet you have a member like Hungary,” Mr Dolan said.

Hungarian officials were not immediately available to comment.

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The group said backsliding on the rule of law in Hungary could soon be matched in Poland, where another right-wing ruling party has taken similar steps to assert its control over institutions. That underscores the need for the EU to monitor corruption in all member states as it already does in newer EU states Romania and Bulgaria, it said.

Transparency International was also “deeply concerned” about the rise to power in Austria of the anti-Islam Freedom Party (FPO), now a junior partner in Austria’s coalition government and in charge of the interior ministry, Dolan said.

Regular EU monitoring of how many corruption cases were prosecuted, and challenges to the rule of law, would help the EU track disturbing trends across Europe, Dolan said.

New Zealand and Denmark ranked highest on the index, with scores of 89 and 88, while Syria, South Sudan and Somalia ranked lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9, TI said.

The average score for EU and western European countries was around 66, the group said. A score of 100 is considered “very clean”, while a score of zero is highly corrupt.

The EU last week told Montenegro and five other western Balkan nations seeking membership that they must crack down more on corruption and implement difficult reforms before they can join the wealthy bloc. Montenegro’s score rose by one point to 46. Other western Balkan states scored between 35 and 41.