Dhaka: Bangladesh made progress in fighting against corruption in 2016, according to the latest Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of the Transparency International.

"On a scale of 100, Bangladesh has scored 26 among 176 countries, an increase by one point compared to 25 of CPI 2015," said the report released on Wednesday. 

Counting from below, the Bangladesh's ranking has also moved up two steps from 13 in 2015 to 15 when the country been placed at 145th position from the top compared to 139th position in 2015. 

Coinciding with the global dissemination, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) launched the report at its office in the capital city.

TIB Chairperson Advocate Sultana Kamal and its Executive Director Dr. Iftekharuzzaman were present at the launching of the report. 

"It is comforting that we have slightly improved in terms of ranking and position from bottom. However, we cannot be complacent as we have not reached the satisfactory level yet," said Sultana Kamal, citing the finding of this year's CPI.

Pointing out that the `global average of corruption control' is 43, Dr. Iftekharuzzaman said Bangladesh has increased one point as its legal, institutional and policy framework have become stronger than before. 

He, however, said the country would require lot more to do in curbing corruption further.

According to the findings of CPI 2016, Denmark and New Zealand performed best with scores of 90, closely followed by Finland (89) and Sweden (88). For the tenth year running, Somalia is the worst performer on the index, scoring only 10 this year. South Sudan is second from the bottom with a score of 11, followed by North Korea (12) and Syria (13). 

The CPI scores and ranks countries/territories based on how corrupt a country's public sector is perceived to be. It is a composite index, a combination of surveys and assessments of corruption, collected by a variety of reputable institutions. 

Bangladesh was earlier placed at the bottom of the list for five successive years from 2001-2005. In 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 Bangladesh was ranked at number 3, 7, 10, 13, and 12 respectively while in 2011 and 2012 we were 13th, 16th in 2013, 14th in 2014, and 13th in 2015.