Nepal’s standing as the 50th most corrupt country in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2007 has once again brought the country into sharp focus. Out of the 180 countries under study, Nepal scored 2.5 on the scale of 0-10 (10 being the least corrupt), when just three years ago it had salvaged a score of 2.8, making it the 90th least corrupt country; Nepal has since slipped to 131st place. Comparatively, Nepal is less corrupt than Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan but much more than Bhutan, the best performer among SAARC countries with a score of five.

Denmark (9.4) is the least corrupt country in the world. Although corruption is more entrenched in poorer countries, high ranking of African nations like Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa and Swaziland has proven that strong political will and reform-oriented mindset go a long way towards tackling corruption. This clearly hints at the tradition-bound mindset of Nepali government officials and the lack of political will to take on corruption head on. Moreover, independent and strong judiciary free from all forms of political influence is a must to ensure greater accountability in public institutions and bring the corrupt to book. But this is hardly the case in Nepal. It is a sad fact that even after the advent of Loktantra, when public expectations have risen very high, the officials concerned have done very little to fight the scourge of corruption.