Department of Government Ethics

Today, Transparency International (TI) published the 2014 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), in which Taiwan, scoring 61 out of a total 100 points, was ranked 35th place among the 175 investigated countries. This score was the same as that of 2013 and the rank was one rank higher than that of 2013, showing that Taiwan has been continuously improving for the past two years, surpassing eighty percent of the investigated countries.

In the Asia Pacific region, Taiwan’s CPI was behind that of New Zealand (2nd place, 91points), that of Singapore (7th place, 84 points), that of Australia (11th place, 74 points), that of Japan (15th place, 76 points), that of Hong Kong (17th place, 74 points), and that of Bhutan (30th place, 65 points). Overall in Asia Pacific region, Taiwan, ranked at 7th place, was able to maintain its reputable standard of integrity. Although Taiwan increased in ranks, it still had plenty of rooms for improvement.

The CPI was strongly dependent on 7 types of data. Four types of these data were of professional evaluation, including Bertelsmann Foundation Transformation Index, Economist Intelligence Unit Country Risk Assessment, Global Insight Country Risk Ratings, and Political Risk Services International Country Risk Guide. In addition, three types of data were by Multinational Corporation CEOs, including Political Risk Services International Country Risk Guide, International Institute for Management Development (IMD) Competitiveness Yearbook, Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Asian Intelligence, and World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey. Every type of data investigates different contents, including the subjective evaluation of the integrity of local and national political leaders and of the civil servants from different departments. Moreover, the investigation covers from the corruption-induced problems from economics and politics to the efficiency of judicial anti-corruption function and of corruption-suppression by government. Unlike those of 2012 and of 2013, the data of 2014 slightly fluctuated, but remained relatively unchanged.

Because CPI investigated a wide range of aspects, the government could not rely on any single department to increase the CPI. The Ministry of Justice would need to allocate to Agency Against Corruption the responsibility to coordinate the various departments of government, executing the integrity-directed project outlined in the “National Anti-Corruption Mission Proposal” by Executive Yuan. The project’s goal was to prevent the bribery, conflict of interest, and breach of government procurement law between the private and public sectors. Furthermore, the project would make international cooperation more frequent by meetings, visits, publications, and etc. to advertise Taiwan’s hard work at building integrity. Overall, the project would not only improve the evaluators’ impression on Taiwan, but also drive Taiwan’s CPI to progress.

Original Source (Chinese) : http://www-ws.gov.taipei/001/Upload/public/Attachment/41249394865.pdf