Ammon News - The Kingdom has maintained its ranking on the Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2020 for the past two years, standing at the 60th place, according to a report released by the international anti-graft watchdog.

Scoring 49 points out of 100, Jordan ranked 60th among 180 countries on the index, which measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption, and ranked fifth among Arab countries following the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Saudi Arabia, according to the report

According to Rasheed for Transparency and Integrity, a non-profit organisation and the local branch of the TI, the CPI relies on data collected through specialised surveys and opinion polls carried out by independent institutions to determine the degree of corruption in the public sector in 180 countries, which is done by assigning a score ranging from 0, given to those with the most corruption, to 100, given to countries with the most integrity.

Jordan received a score of 49 out of 100, one degree better than 2019 and the same as the score of 2018, according to a Rasheed statement.

The index covers a range of topics of interest to the general public, such as bribery, accountability, monitoring the use of public funds, embezzlement of public money and officials' abuse of their positions for personal gain. It also takes into consideration the government's ability to reduce corruption, bureaucratic procedures that contribute to increasing corruption, and favouritism in the recruitment and hiring process, the statement said.

The CPI also addresses the protection of whistleblowers, journalists, and investigators when reporting cases of corruption, the ability of civil society to access information of public concern and the degree of accountability available to citizens, according to the statement.

Sources used to calculate Jordan’s CPI include: Bertelsmann FDN Transformation Index, Economist Intelligence Unit Country Ratings, Global Insight Country Risk Ratings, The World Competitiveness Yearbook, and Political Risk Services International Country Risk, noted the statement.

The sources also include the Varieties of Democracy Project, the World Economic Forum’s EOS and World Justice Project’s (WJP) Rule of Law, according to the statement.