Georgia with record-high score in 2023 European Anti-Corruption Centre Public Integrity Index

Georgia has ranked 29th with a score of 7.56 out of 10 in the 2023 Index of Public Integrity by the European Research Centre for Anti-Corruption and State-building, marking the country's highest-ever rating position, Azernews reports, citing Agenda.

Moving up from the 32nd place in the latest edition of the ranking, the country outperformed 11 member states of the European Union and NATO, as well as all other EU candidates, and led in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia regions, topping the charts when compared to high- and middle-income countries.

In the rating, Georgia surpassed Belgium, Croatia, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Poland, Malta, Bulgaria, Turkey, Israel, Albania, North Macedonia and several other states.

Image from the report.

It also progressed in judicial independence, advancing 21 places from the 57th to the 36th position and securing a spot in the top 20 in Europe. It also outpaced 16 EU and NATO member states, including Italy, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Greece, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Malta, Latvia, Hungary, Turkey and North Macedonia.

For the indicator of administrative transparency, Georgia received 10 points, achieving the best result globally, on par with 10 other states with identical scores.

The index gauges the level of corruption control in a country, where a higher score indicates a more robust control of corruption, while a lower score reflects weaker control. It assesses the state's good governance practices, judicial independence, freedom of the press, administrative burden, and indicators of state accountability and transparency.

The ranking is based on studies and reports from international entities such as the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, with the project backed by the Seventh Framework Programme for Research of the European Union.