Department of Government Ethics

According to the 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), released on February 21st, there are 180 countries and territories incorporated, and Taiwan ranked the 29th place worldwide with the score of 63 out of 100.
 
In 2016, there were 176 countries and territories included in the index compare to 180 in 2017. Nonetheless, Taiwan ranked higher than 83% of the countries and territories competed. Within Asia-Pacific region, Taiwan was ranked the 7th place after New Zealand (1st with the score of 89), Singapore (6th with the score of 84), Australia (13rd with the score of 77), Hong Kong (13rd with the score of 77), Japan (20th with the score of 73), and Bhutan (26th with the score of 67).
 
In 2012, TI updated the methodology used to compile the index and this new method basically gives the countries and territories raw scores from years to years to reflect on changes. An additional institution, Varieties of Democracy, was added to evaluate the status of Taiwan in the 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index and thus, the comparison between two years would be invalid. Therefore, for 2017 CPI, Taiwan was graded by 8 institutions as usual and the scores they graded for Taiwan as follows: Global Insight (GI), 71; Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), 55; International Institute for Management Development (IMD), 64; World Economic Forum (WEF), 71; Bertelsmann Foundation (BF), 77; Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC), 55; Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), 56.
 
The above indicators show a rising trend in scores of the remaining seven institutions except that the score of IMD scored 64, down 1 point from the previous year. Among them, the V-Dem score raised the most. The V-Dem corruption measure is an index of six indicators of different forms of corruption based on original data from country experts. In concerns of the level of administration, as well as judicial officers and legislators’ corruption, it appears that reform in administration and judicial has been achieved.
 
The CPI is a measure of the subjective perception of corruption in the civil servants, as the scores of the International Institute of Management (IMD) decline but the PERC score goes up. In fact, when the government's decision-making process is not transparent enough, it maybe leads to be questioned. In the future, we should make the government’s decision-making process more transparent and implement various transparent policies in accordance with related regulations.
 
In consider of the survey’s target audiences who are mostly foreign companies in Taiwan and businessmen, it is crucial to focus on how to reduce the negative influences by corruption on business activities and prevent inappropriate interaction between civil servants and businessmen, that is, to prevent the executive bribery and corrupt exchanges, conflicts of interest, and the corrupt exchanges in government procurements and public constructions. In investigations, establish a sound whistleblower protection system and encourage whistleblowers to expose abuses. Pragmatically review the existing laws and regulations, so that avoid public sector arrested due to irrational ones. Meanwhile, it is crucial to establish the contact windows with the evaluation groups through international institutions and forums and to promote the efforts our country has made for the United Nations Convention Against Corruption and increase the potential index evaluators’ understandings of Taiwan.