January 25 (SeeNews) - Transparency International said on Wednesday Macedonia dropped to the 90th place in the 2016 edition of the organisation's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) survey, from 66th position a year earlier.
The CPI comprises 176 countries and territories. The index aggregates data from different sources, which provide perceptions of business people and country experts of the level of corruption in the public sector. The CPI 2016 is calculated using thirteen different data sources. In the case of Macedonia, seven sources have been used: World Economic Forum EOS, Global Insight Risk Ratings, Berthelsmann Foundation Transformation Index, World Justice Project Rule of Law Index, Varieties of Democracy Project, Economist Intelligence Unit Country Ratings, and Freedom House Nations in Transit Ratings.
"In the Western Balkans, Transparency International’s recent report attributes weaknesses in law enforcement to captured political systems in which politicians wield enormous influence on all walks of public life, while being close to wealthy private businessmen or even organised crime networks," the organisation said.
Macedonia has been locked in a political crisis since January 2015, when opposition SDSM leader Zoran Zaev accused the coalition government led by VMRO-DPMNE of corruption, illegal wiretapping of more than 20,000 people and covering-up a murder. On December 11 Macedonia held early elections, which were part of a EU-brokered deal. The conservative VMRO-DPMNE won a narrow victory against SDSM, gaining 51 seats in the country's 120-seat parliament. In order to form a government a party needs at least 61 seats.