Malaysia's rank in corruption perceptions index improves slightly

Malaysia's ranking in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) has improved slightly, from 54th place last year to 53rd this year, with its CPI score moving a notch from 49 to 50.

In Asean, Malaysia is ranked third, behind Singapore and Brunei, while globally, it managed to position itself better than other developed countries including Italy, Greece and the Czech Republic.

"Malaysia continues to be in mid-range average, indicating that while many steps have been implemented under the Government Transformation Programme (GTP) and National Key Result Areas initiatives, the level of corruption has not significant decreased," said Transparency International Malaysia (TI-M) president Datuk Akhbar Satar.

"Stronger measures and practices need to be enforced and must be taken to eliminate entrenched interests and processes that support abuses," he told a media briefing here, Tuesday.

To improve the situation, he said, TI-M had underlined a few recommendationsfor the government to consider, as part of critical efforts to curb corruption.