In the 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released by Transparency International (TI) on January 25, Korea once again received a record high score of 62 points out of 100 and was ranked 32^nd among 180 countries.

Korea’s CPI score and ranking increased by 1 point and 1 notch from the previous year. Its ranking rose by 19 notches from 51^stin 2017, maintaining its constant increase trend for five consecutive years.

* 51st (54 points) in 2017, 45th (57 points) in 2018, 39th (59 points) in 2019, 33rd (61 points) in 2020

The CPI is a representative international index that reveals national corruption levels in the public and political sectors evaluated by TI every year since 1995.

Regarding this year’s result, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC) assessed that the efforts of the government and the people to settle and spread the anti-corruption and integrity culture based on transparency and openness have made a positive impact, despite difficult conditions in the last year such as the real-estate speculation scandals by public officials and COVID-19 responses.

Specifically, the ACRC attributed such result to the following: reforms of the behavioral standards of the public sector, such as the enactment of the Act on the Prevention of Conflict of Interest Related to Duties of Public Servants; government-wide efforts to eradicate cheating and privileges in the overall society, such as the complete inspection on real estate owned by national assemblymen; and cooperation of the people and the government to overcome the situation of COVID-19.

In the meantime, Korea was ranked 18^th out of 114 countries and 1^stamong Asian countries in the 2021 Index of Public Integrity (IPI), recently released by the European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-Building (ERCAS).

Also, Korea recorded its all-time high ranking of 21^st out of 194 countries in the Bribery Risk Matrix (BRM) released by TRACE of the United States, categorized as a “low” bribery risk country.

Such data-based corruption control evaluations as IPI and BRM are complementary to CPI, which is based on the perception of professionals and businessmen.

ACRC Chairperson Jeon Hyun-Heui said, “Korea has recorded its all-time high score on this CPI and made a remarkable improvement, ranking in the early 30s.”

She added, “This can be attributed to the current government’s anti-corruption reforms and the efforts of the people. Given Korea’s global standing in the political, economic, and cultural sectors, however, I think that there still remains room for improvement.”

She continued that “Not being complacent with this result, with the goal of making it into the top 30 as an integrity advanced nation, the ACRC will play its role as the anti-corruption governing body of the government, to spread the culture of integrity and fairness across the whole society in cooperation with the public.”