Azerbaijan Featured in More Reports

Transparency International is at it again.  We visited their reports last year at about this time.  I commented on bribery in Azerbaijan and TI shared a story about Hikmət, a local store owner who worked against the corruption of the system.  This time, things are a little less exciting.  The 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index Report is only 12 pages long.  On the other hand, they have this killer interactive map that I’ve wasted a few hours with.

Briefly, Azerbaijan fits in at number 134 overall, number 14 in the Eastern Europe/Central Asia Region in the 2010 CPI Report.  That’s an improvement.  They moved up from 143 to 134, a score increase from 2.3 in 2009 to 2.4 in.  I’m interested in seeing what caused that jump (not really a jump, I guess…more like a slight roll over).  Regionally, they didn’t really change places, maintaining their 14th place, just ahead of Russia.

One other thing I’ll note is that it seems as though Azerbaijani news channels were quick to notice the neighbor to the north, Georgia’s, slight slide.  Georgia lost two places, moving from 66 to 68, with a score falling from 4.1 to 3.7.  Apparently, this is bigger news than Azerbaijan jumping nine places.