The 2025 Corruption Perceptions Report covering the north reveals an increase in corruption within the Turkish Cypriot community, with 73% of businesspeople describing it as a “very serious problem” while one in three felt the need to pay a bribe to get service last year.
The report – prepared by academics Omer Gokcekus and Sertaç Sonan and recently published by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) – records a continuous increase in perceived corruption in the north, particularly over the last five years.
The study adopts the methodology of the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) published annually by Transparency International (TI), which does not cover the north of the island, and relies on the perspectives of businesspeople and experts.
The CPI is the most widely used global corruption ranking in the world. It ranks 182 countries and territories worldwide by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. The results are given on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
Widespread corruption
Following the CPI methodology, and based on responses from 352 participants, Gokcekus and Sonan conclude that the north ranks 150th on the CPI global table, scoring 24/100 – a drop of two points (26/100) and 10 positions from the previous year.
It is positioned alongside Bangladesh, the Central African Republic, and Paraguay, while Congo, Eswatini, and Iran rank just below.
Its score shows a significant gap with the Republic of Cyprus which scored 55 points out of 100, coming 49th out of 182 in the rankings – and a seven-point difference with Turkey (31/100) which ranked 124th on the global chart.
‘Steady decline’
Speaking to Politis, Sonan said the latest findings reveal a marked deterioration in perceived corruption since the annual study was first undertaken in the north nine years ago.
“In 2017, we started with a score of 40, when the global average was 43. Not perfect, but not terrible. It hovered around there for three years, and then 2020 was the major turning point in Turkish Cypriot history,” he said.
That was the year when Ersin Tatar replaced Mustafa Akıncı as Turkish Cypriot leader and the current three-party coalition led by the National Unity Party (UBP) took over the reigns of power.
From that point on, and over the next five years, the north’s score and rankings went in to freefall – dropping consistently from 28/100 in 2021, down to 24/100 in the latest report. With the global average at a record low of 42, the gap suddenly got much bigger.
“So, we’ve seen a steady decline, which goes hand in hand with a lot of scandals and arrests of high-level officials charged with corruption. These concrete examples make the sense of corruption more palpable,” said Sonan.
“One concerning trend is the overall deterioration. Before, public procurement processes always came out the worst in terms of corruption perception. They still are, and have got worse over time, but the gap between them and other areas have started to narrow.”
Same with perceptions of corruption among different sectors. The ‘judiciary’ and ‘law enforcement’ were always considered relatively clean. They still are considered the cleanest when ranked, but the numbers show that trust in them is now also declining, said Sonan.
The findings
According to the findings, 73% of respondents perceive corruption as very widespread. Two out of three businesspeople believe that corruption has increased compared to a year earlier. Bribery is seen as particularly prevalent in the allocation and leasing of publicly owned land and buildings (according to 64% of participants), and in the awarding of public contracts and licences (60%), while less common in judicial decisions (46%), public utilities (49%), and municipal services (50%).
Asked if they or someone in their circle had to give a bribe, gift or do a favour to a relevant official in the last year to get a specific service, one in three (33%) answered ‘yes’, 53% ‘no’, and 13% did not respond. The three most common reasons were: to expedite a process (49%), to complete a procedure (33%), and to reduce the cost of a service (9%).
For the first time, respondents indicate that corruption is most widespread among high-level public officials, overtaking ‘cabinet ministers’ who came in second place.
Regarding the most trusted entity to fight corruption, ‘social media’ comes top with 30% of respondents saying they trust it completely. Traditional media follows in second place at 26%. At the bottom of the ranking is the ‘executive’, in which 52% of participants expressed no trust at all. The proportion of those stating that they have no trust in the ‘legislature’ stands at 47%.
More than half, 55%, finds the ‘executive’ to be completely ineffective in fighting money laundering. On elections, 53% of respondents believe that vote buying or promising other benefits to voters in exchange for their votes is common. In addition, 30% think that threatening to punish voters if they do not vote in a certain way is common.
The report notes a significant increase in tolerance for favouritism over the last three years. While only 5% believed in 2022 that “using personal relationships and connections with public employees to speed things up is acceptable,” this quadrupled in 2025 to 19%.
Similarly, only 3% agreed that the ‘executive’ can engage in corruption as long as it delivers good services in 2022, but this rate rose to 11% in 2025. Conversely, the percentage of those who disagree with this statement dropped from 79% in 2023 to 68% in 2025.
“This indicates that tolerance towards corruption has been steadily increasing over the past three years,” said the report.
Sixty-three percent of respondents believe that corruption is a major obstacle to doing business in the north, while only 7% say that it poses no obstacle at all.
And finally, one third of respondents believe that success is tied to merit and effort, one third are undecided and one third disagree.
Global downward trend
The 2025 CPI Report by Transparency International ranks Denmark as the least corrupt country in the world, with a score of 89 points. While eight of the top 10 countries in the rankings are European, the global average has fallen to a new low of 42, with more than two-thirds of countries scoring below 50.
The Cyprus Republic – with a score of 55, one point lower than 2024 – came joint 49th in the rankings – out of 182 – alongside Fiji and Spain, confirming a downward trend ever since its heyday of 2012 when it scored 66/100.
Greece, on an upward trend, scored 50/100, coming joint 56th with Bahrain, Georgia and Jordan, while Turkey dropped in the rankings, scoring 31 points to come joint 124th with Belarus, Djibouti, Mongolia, Niger and Uzbekistan. Joint last at the bottom of the Corruption Perceptions Index are Somalia and South Sudan with nine points.
Stagnancy or deterioration
According to Transparency International, since 2012, most countries are failing to tackle corruption and have either stayed stagnant or got worse.
“We’re seeing a concerning picture of long-term decline in leadership to tackle corruption. Even established democracies, like the US, UK and New Zealand, are experiencing a drop in performance. The absence of bold leadership is leading to weaker standards and enforcement, lowering ambition on anti-corruption efforts around the world,” it said.
Holding power to account
At the same time, restrictions on civic space are limiting the ability of citizens, NGOs and journalists to hold power to account, allowing corruption to thrive. Even countries that rank well on corruption indices may enable global corruption through money laundering and cross-border financial secrecy, notes Transparency International.
On a regional basis, Eastern Europe and Central Asia remain one of the world’s lowest-performing regions with “widespread impunity for corruption being driven by the vested interests that dominate most governments and their institutions”.
Western European nations may score better, however, “anti-corruption efforts have largely stalled in recent years, with the region’s average CPI score dropping quicker than any other”.