Most Corrupt Countries in the World

Consistently ranked as one of the world’s poorest countries, Chad is vastly underdeveloped with only about 5% of the population having access to electricity, according to the United Nations. Institutional corruption in Chad is systemic, with a judicial system closely tied to the executive branch with little public trust, according to compliance management company Gan Integrity.

The police force is also prone to petty corruption, violence, and extortion. There is also nepotism in the public sector, and bribery is widespread in the delivery of public services, land administration, tax collection, and natural resources management.

This tiny country of islands situated between Madagascar and Mozambique, has had 21 coups or coup attempts since its independence from France in 1975. Current President Azali Assoumani came to power in a 1999 coup and was elected to serve as president in 2002-2006. He was re-elected in 2016 and quickly dissolved the country’s anti-corruption authority.

In 2018, he extended presidential term limits and ended a power-sharing system among the country’s three main islands in a referendum that opposition groups say was rigged. Among other issues, Comoros serves as a “dark port” for the illegal trafficking of endangered rosewood from Madagascar to China.

While Guatemala, Cuba, and Nicaragua hit their all-time lows in Transparency International’s latest Corruption Perception Index, Nicaragua is among the three countries in the Americas that are among the 14 of the world’s most corrupt, according to the organization. The other two being Venezuela and Haiti.

The country’s judicial system is prone to bribery in return for favorable rulings. The police force is so untrustworthy that companies often hire private security. Also, bribery and unlawful seizures are common in its customs administration.

As with other of the world’s most corrupt countries, Turkmenistan has issues in its judiciary and law enforcement. The president retains power to modify court decisions, and police regularly ask for bribes at traffic stops. Bribery is also common in the country’s construction industry and customs administration.

In 2021, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project reported that a nephew of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, who served as president until last year when his son Serdar took control, was given a contract to import food staples through a U.K.-registered firm. Then he allegedly siphoned proceeds to fund his lavish lifestyle, while the public suffered from food shortages and skyrocketing inflation.

Widespread corruption in Burundi, which borders another country that is just outside this list, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is due largely to a lack of effective anti-corruption monitors, who live in fear of sanctioning local leaders. Whistleblowers have no protections, which helps provide immunity to influential people with ties to the ruling National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy party.

Citizens without such connections harbor little trust for the government, leading them to have more loyalty to their social networks than to the state, according to U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre. Tax avoidance is common, made worse by collectors who earn salaries so low they are prone to accepting bribes.

Corruption is widespread in this tiny west African country, and it is made worse by oppression under President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has clung to power for more than four decades. Money skimmed from oil revenue keeps the powerful elites in laps of luxury, while most of the population languishes in poverty, according to Human Rights Watch.

The president’s son and would-be successor, Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue, was convicted in 2021 by a French court for embezzlement and money laundering committed while he serves as a state minister. Though Teodorin remains a free man and maintains his post as the country’s vice president since 2016, $177 million worth of his French assets were confiscated. The U.S. and Switzerland had previously seized more than $170 million of his assets.

Wrecked by political instability, increasing levels of violence, a persistent lack of security, and regularly occurring natural disasters, Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and one of the most unequal in the Americas.

In 2019, protests against an end to fuel subsidies intensified after evidence emerged of years-long widespread embezzlement of infrastructure and health care funds. The judiciary has long been largely a de-facto extension of the executive branch, a legacy of the country’s past authoritarianism. As a result, judges rarely prosecute abuses of power by political and economic elites.

North Korea remains one of the most corrupt countries in the world due to a complete lack of independent internal oversight and a rampant culture of bribery among government officials. “Corruption pays the bills,” Chris Carothers, a fellow at the European Center for North Korean Studies, told NK News. “Corruption also helps the regime politically because private citizens with enough money can bribe their way out of onerous government rules and restrictions.”

On a global scale, North Korea is “among the most sophisticated actors when it comes to exploiting vulnerabilities in the global financial system to evade sanctions,” according to the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre.

A U.N.-backed process led to the appointment in 2021 of businessman and politician Abdul Dbeibah as prime minister under the transitional Government of National Unity, following a ceasefire in the country’s civil war in October 2020. But after two delayed elections since Dbeibah’s ascent, the country remains stiffly polarized, and armed.

This instability means there are no staid mechanisms for monitoring or prosecuting political and economic elites. Embezzlement of state funds is rampant. The U.N. also found that Dbeibah’s nomination involved a $500,000 vote-buying scheme, and that he appointed family and friends to lucrative positions in the government.

Yemen, one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world, is currently embroiled in civil war, helped along by two geopolitical adversaries: Saudi Arabia and Iran. This has worsened the country’s long-standing problems with administrative corruption and abuse of power by the country’s elites.

Citizens accept and expect they will have to pay bribes for basic government services, and like in other countries, this has led to greater dependence on informal social networks than on government institutions. Yemen’s culture of administrative corruption was exacerbated under late President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who resigned after the 2012 Yemeni Revolution and died in 2017.

Corruption thrives where there is social instability and consolidation of power, and in few places in the Americas is this more prevalent than in Venezuela, which is embroiled in an ongoing political and economic crisis. The country’s system of check and balances has largely crumbled under the rule of the late Hugo Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro. The country’s high court, electoral council, and much of its judiciary is under the control of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

Examples of corruption in recent years include smuggling powdered milk imports intended for school children to sell as contraband in Colombia with the collusion of the military and customs officials. Other examples are the embezzlement of funds intended to purchase, import, and distribute food to hungry citizens and the peddling of fake COVID-19 vaccines.

The world’s newest country is also one of the world’s most corrupt. The fight against impunity has been minimal, and the country’s leaders continue to divert “staggering amounts of money…from (the country’s) public coffers,” chairperson of the Commission of Human Rights in South Sudan, Yasmin Sooka. South Sudan’s elites have reportedly siphoned $4 billion of public funds since the country’s independence in 2012.

Local officials are often protected by personal networks, while the judiciary is heavily influenced by the executive branch, currently headed by President Salva Kiir Mayardit. Shady management of the country’s energy resources allowed high-ranking government officials to embezzle funds with no repercussions, according to Gan Integrity.

Conflict breeds corruption, and in few places is this more true than in Syria, which is currently in the midst of a complicated, multi-sided civil war. As in other countries on this list, bribery is endemic and has worsened since the outbreak of war in 2011. “Syria is witnessing an unprecedented deterioration in economic conditions, bribery and corruption are widespread in most aspects of life in the cities under the control of the Syrian government,” said Syrians for Truth & Justice.

Examples of this corruption include the issuing and renewing of passports; soldiers bribing commanding officers for time off; eliciting bribes for access to medical care; and even paying bribes for government positions that then can allow for demanding bribes.

Conflict in the Horn of Africa has endured for more than three decades and has turned Somalia into a seemingly endless storm of violence and instability, and the corruption they enable. These conditions have continued despite tenuous control of large parts of the country under the administration of President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. “Corruption occurs at all levels in both the public and private sectors, and is a visible and expected form of behaviour,” says the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre.

Examples of common corruption practices in Somalia include misappropriation of state funds; the seizure and sale of lands to connected individuals; bribery at all levels of business activity; and “facilitation payments” for access to basic medical care.