Speaking, Senior Manager of TISL - Shan Wijetunga says that although the Sri Lankan government had reduced costs, countering corruption has become a challenge as is a lack of proper mechanism in the state sector.

Sri Lanka has ranked 83rd among 168 countries in the 2015 annual Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), which ranks countries according to the perceived level of public sector corruption. This is a marginal improvement on its 85th placed ranking in 2014.

The ranks are based on a scoring system that ranges between 0 (public sector perceived as highly corrupt) to 100 (public sector perceived as very clean). Two-thirds of the 168 countries assessed scored below 50. In 2015 Sri Lanka has scored 37 points, which marks a slight decline to the 2014 score of 38 points. This indicates that from the perspective of business people and country experts, based on data sources from independent institutions specialising in governance and business climate analysis, the perception of the extent of corruption in the Sri Lankan public sector has slightly worsened.

The press release issued by Transparency International Secretariat does highlight that “in places like Guatemala, Sri Lanka and Ghana, citizen activists in groups and on their own worked hard to drive out the corrupt, sending a strong message that should encourage others to take decisive action in 2016”.

Denmark is at the top of the list as the least corrupt state with North Korea at the bottom of the list.