According to the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau (KNAB), Latvia’s historically high score in the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) confirms Latvia’s progress towards reducing the presence of corruption. Latvia’s anti-corruption decisions and actions have yielded measurable results, but there remains a need for stakeholders to be more active to achieve faster positive dynamics.
The CPI reflects the private sector’s perceived levels of corruption in public sector, covering a wide range of topics — economic processes, including inflation, the informal economy and tax policy, political processes, litigation, corruption, etc. In the 2023 CPI, Latvia scored 60 points, which is its highest score to date, and ranked 36th among the 180 countries and territories assessed. Latvia has also improved its position among the 27 European Union Member States, ranking 14th.
The stakeholders — the decision-making and executive body, as well as the judiciary — have an important role to play in improving Latvia’s position in the CPI. Anti-corruption issues and decisions aimed at reducing corruption should be prioritised by the decision-making body, while the executive body, i.e. public administration, should ensure that corruption reduction activities are targeted and effective, rather than formal. To contribute to eradicating corruption, there is a need to reduce the sense of impunity, which is linked, inter alia, to excessively lengthy legal proceedings.
The private sector is also playing an increasingly important role. Corruption in the private sector is not disconnected from corruption in the public sector, as evidenced by the negative trend observed by KNAB: the number of legal entities that use bribery of public officials as a method of business development is increasing every year.
Identifying and mitigating corruption risks in the private sector is both the responsibility of business itself, by putting in place anti-corruption mechanisms and demonstrating a clear rejection of corruption, and the responsibility of the public sector. KNAB points out that the implementation of anti-corruption measures in the private sector is one of the priorities of the Action Plan for Preventing and Combating Corruption 2023-2025 and of the Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau Strategy 2023-2026.