Perceived corruption within the public sector continued to rise over the past 12 months, according to an index published by Transparency International.

The country slipped to 43rd place in the 174-country index, down four places from last year.

The classification is partly the result of the fact that the 2011 report included more countries (183). However, the study, which the international NGO has compiled since 1995, shows that perceived corruption in Malta is on the rise.

Moreover, it confirms a trend seen ever over the past years – when Malta joined the EU in 2004, the country ranked 25th. The comparison with other EU member states is even less favourable, with the island ending up 18th in the 27-member bloc.

The survey measures perceived levels of public sector corruption based on expert opinion. Countries are given scores from 0 (very corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

This year, Malta received a total of 57 points, one more than in 2011, based on the conclusions of four reports compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the International Country Risk Grading, the World Economic Forum and the Global Intelligence Country Risk Ratings.

Denmark, Finland and New Zealand are perceived the cleanest countries in the world, although none of them managed to score 100. On the other hand, Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia are at the bottom of the rankings as the most corrupt states.

On an EU level, Malta fared better than neighbouring Italy and Greece. However, some former communist countries, which, until a few years ago, were perceived as being very corrupt, including Poland and Slovenia, improved their perception and now feature as ‘cleaner’ than Malta.

Commenting on the general results, Huguette Labelle, chair of Transparency International, said governments needed to integrate more anti-corruption actions into all public-decision making.

“Priorities include better rules on lobbying and political financing, making public spending and contracting more transparent and making public bodies more accountable to people.”