Syria is the worst, the United Arab Emirates performs the best when it comes to combatting corruption in the Middle East and North Africa region, while Turkey has witnessed a further decline of its score from 96 to 101 in global rankings, according to Transparency International report released on Tuesday.

The international corruption watchdog released its 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index, reviewing the track record in transparency and combating corruption of 180 countries. The majority of countries in the Middle East and North Africa have dropped in their ranking, with the average of the region hitting a new low of 38 out of 100 on a scale where a zero score indicates a highly corrupt state. 

“States across the Middle East and North Africa are struggling to achieve tangible results against corruption. No country has registered a significant improvement on the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) in the last decade,” the watchdog said.

In 2022, Oman has seen the biggest drop by 8 points from 2021. The Gulf country is now ranked 69 on the global corruption meter. Israel, in turn, has been a top performer with its score climbing 4 places to 31, the index showed.