Jakarta – Berlin-based Transparency International (TI) has still ranked Indonesia among the most corrupt countries in the world, with scores of two or less, while Finland, Denmark and New Zealand were the "cleanest", with scores of between nine and ten.

In its annual report on Wednesday, the anti-corruption body published a list of 102 countries ranked in order of perceptions of corruption, naming Bangladesh the most corrupt nation and Finland the least.

Nigeria was second-worst, Angola, Madagascar and Paraguay tied at third from the bottom and Indonesia and Kenya jointly ranked as the fourth-most corrupt nations. "[Here] corruption is perceived to be widespread", said TI chairman Peter Eigen in a statement.

The list is compiled from a series of surveys rather than a hard and fast rundown of the world's most corrupt countries; neither does it include those nations where there was insufficient information to make a judgment.

"The political elite and its cronies continue to take kickbacks at every opportunity. Hand in glove with corrupt businesspeople hey are trapping whole nations in poverty and hampering sustainable development," said Eigen.

He warned that corruption paved the way to plundering the earth in activities ranging from illegal logging to "blood diamonds".

TI ranked the countries based on 15 surveys from nine independent institutions. The ranking relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by businesspeople and risk analysts.

In Asia, top-rated Singapore was followed by Hong Kong in 14th place, Japan 20th, Taiwan 29th and South Korea 40th. China was not included in the list. India was ranked 71st, the same as Russia. Top-ranked Arab country was Tunisia at 36th place, followed by Jordan 40th, Morocco 52nd and Egypt 62nd.

"Politicians increasingly pay lip service to the fight against corruption but they fail to act on the clear message of TI's perceptions index: that they must clamp down on corruption to break the vicious cycle of poverty and graft," concluded Eigen.