Press Release
Dhaka, 07 October 2025: TIB has welcomed that the London-based Financial Times (FT) has amended the relevant part of an incorrect information on Bangladesh’s ranking in Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) published in a recent FT report soon after they were informed of the mistake by Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB). Earlier, since immediately after the FT report with the wrong information was published as part of a report based on their interview with the Acting Chairman of BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party), and since it was widely covered in Bangladesh on October 6 in the local media including leading Bangla and English newspapers, TIB issued a statement on October 7 calling for the attention of all concerned to the incorrect and potentially misleading information.
In the original FT report it was wrongly mentioned that Bangladesh was ranked as the most corrupt country for five consecutive years during the tenure of BNP, whereas in fact it was for four years (not five). TIB communicated with the relevant reporters of the FT report to convey the mistake and requested that a corrigendum be issued. TIB further informed FT that Bangladesh was first ranked as most corrupt country for the first time in 2001, when Awami League was in power.
It may be added that TI has been publishing the CPI since 1995. When Bangladesh was first included in the CPI in 2001, it was ranked at the bottom of the list among all surveyed countries. At that time, the Bangladesh Awami League was in power. Bangladesh continued to remain at the bottom of the index for the next four years consecutively until 2005, when the country was governed by the BNP-led four-party alliance from 2002 to 2005.
TIB urged upon all concerned to take note of the importance of accurate information on Bangladesh’s position in the CPI as published by TI and exercise caution to avoid the risk of misunderstanding or misinterpretation.
It can be further noted that TIB does not play any role in determining Bangladesh’s score or ranking in CPI. As applicable for any other national chapter there is no scope of including any report of data from research conducted by TIB in the CPI. TIB only disseminates the global CPI findings at the national level in Bangladesh like other TI national chapters do at a date and time determined by TI.
Media Contact:
Mohammad Tauhidul Islam
Director, Outreach and Communication
Phone: +8801713107868
Email: tauhidul@ti-bangladesh.org
