KUWAIT CITY, Dec 1, (Agencies): Kuwait has been ranked 54th globally and second in the GCC with a score of 4.6 in the 2011 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released Thursday by the Transparency International (TI), an anti-graft watchdog based in Berlin.

Using a scale of zero (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 10 (thought to have the least corruption), the index ranked 183 countries by their
perceived levels of public sector corruption.

Comparing the global ranks of GCC countries in the 2011 index with that of last year, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) maintained their ranking at 54th and 28th respectively with the UAE having a score of 6.8; Bahrain improved from 48th to 46th with a score of 5.1; while the ranks of Saudi Arabia – from 50th to 57th with a score of 4.4, Oman – from 41st to 50th with a score of 4.8 and Qatar – from 19th to 22nd with a score of 7.2, declined this year.

Based on the figures above, the report alleged that Saudi Arabia is the most corrupt nation in the GCC, followed by Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain and UAE with Qatar the least corrupt.

Awareness of corruption has risen in some Arab countries in the wake of their uprisings earlier this year, a global league table released by Transparency International showed on Thursday.

North Korea was included in the Berlin-based watchdog TI’s annual corruption perceptions index (CPI) for the first time and was judged the most corrupt country, along with Somalia, putting them at the bottom of the table.

Tunisia fell to 73rd place from 59th last year, with its CPI score dropping to 3.8 from 4.3 in the index, which is based on independent surveys on corruption.

Egypt fell to 112th from 98th, with a CPI of 2.9, and Syria slipped to 129th from 127th. Yemen and Libya shared 146th place last year and dropped to 164th and 168th this year respectively.

Heading the index was New Zealand with 9.5, followed by Denmark and Finland, sharing second place with 9.4. New Zealand has topped the table every year since 2006.

Somalia and North Korea both scored 1.0, with North Korea being included for the first time in the index’s 16-year history. De Swardt said there had previously not been enough data to include the Asian country.

However, TI identified Russia, Iran, France, the United Arab Emirates, Poland and Cuba as states where improvement had been made over the past year.