Singapore ranks 13th out of 200 for 'very low' risk of commercial bribery

SINGAPORE has turned up in 13th spot out of 200 countries that were ranked for the risk of encountering commercial bribery, according to a latest gauge.

This puts the city state in the "very low" category in terms of risks of business bribery or in other words, corruption-related concerns, based on the 2017 Trace Bribery Risk Matrix - a global business bribery risk assessment tool.

The risk assessment tool done by Trace International - an anti-bribery standard setting organisation - guides companies to gauge the risk of commercial bribery worldwide as well as within each country.

Sweden, New Zealand and Norway were placed among the five least risky countries, along with newcomers Finland and the UK. The five riskiest countries for bribery are Somalia, ranked last among 200 countries, Venezuela, Turkmenistan, North Korea and South Sudan respectively.

The countries are ranked based on a set of four domains - the higher the score, the higher the risk of business bribery.

In terms of "business interactions with government", Singapore received a "very low" score of one based on a very low degree of government interaction, expectation of bribes and regulatory burden.

It also got a "very low" score of eight on the "anti-bribery laws and enforcement" component given the high quality of such laws and enforcement and a "very low" score of 16 for "government and civil services transparency".

The highest score of the four domain was a "medium score" of 46 for the "capacity for civil society oversight" aspect based on, according to the Trace Matrix, the degree of media freedom/quality and a high degree of social development.