January 29 (SeeNews) - Serbia has moved 10 positions down to 87th place in the 2018 edition of Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) global survey published on Tuesday.
Serbia achieved a score of 39 in the 2018 survey, versus 41 in 2017, where 0 equals the highest level of perceived corruption and 100 indicates the lowest one, Transparency International said.
The downward trend of Serbia may persist if the government continues to undermine those bodies and institutions that are responsible for maintaining the rule of law, Transparency International said.
"In 2018, despite opposition from NGOs, professional associations and others, the government has pushed for increased influence over the judiciary."
Similarly, the government is working to reduce public access to information by exempting state-owned enterprises from disclosing information. Despite government claims of supporting free media, journalist associations are having difficulty engaging in the development of Serbia’s new media strategy, the non-governmental corruption watchdog noted.
The CPI offers an annual snapshot of the relative degree of corruption by ranking countries and territories from all over the globe and comprises 180 countries and territories. The index aggregates data from different sources, which provide perceptions of business people and country experts on corruption in the public sector.
The CPI 2018 is calculated using 13 different data sources. In the case of Serbia, the sources are eight: Global Insight Country Risk Ratings, Bertelsmann Foundation, World Economic Forum, Economist Intelligence Unit, Freedom House, International Country Risk Guide, World Justice Project Rule of Law Index and Varieties of Democracy Project.
Denmark led the CPI global survey for 2018, while Somalia occupied the last place.