Hungary fell behind the Czech Republic in the ranking for the first time. It was also behind Estonia and Slovenia.
Transparency International‘s local branch criticized the lack of transparency in Hungary’s party and campaign financing and its overly complicated public procurement system in a press release. It also cited the weakness of law enforcement and light sanctions in corruption cases as big problems.
“If no effective action is taken against corruption, Hungary may easily slide down the ladder in the next few years,” the statement said.
Hungary scored 5.1 on a scale of 1 to 10 in the 2008 index, down from 5.3 in 2007. The change is within the statistical margin of error, the statement noted. (MTI – Econews)