Dec 05, Colombo: Sri Lanka, with a score of 40 points out of 100, has been ranked at the 79th place among 176 countries in the annual global Corruption Perception Index (CPI), a report just released today by the Transparency International (TI) showed.

According to the TI report Sri Lanka ranks second above India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh among the South Asian Countries. Only Bhutan has fared better than Sri Lanka. In Asia Pacific region Sri Lanka is ranked number 11.

The Transparency International in a release said that since Sri Lanka has scored below 50, the country has not still minimized the level of corruption in the public sector.

The Transparency International Sri Lanka therefore, believes that there is a need to strengthen the anti - corruption mechanisms in the island.

The organization says that two thirds of the 176 countries ranked in the 2012 index score below 50, on a scale from highly corrupted score of 0 to very clean score of 100, showing that public institutions need to be more transparent, and powerful officials more accountable.

"It has become apparent that the levels of bribery, abuse of power and secret dealings are still very high in many countries," the Transparency International said.

In the Corruption Perceptions Index 2012 Denmark, Finland and New Zealand tie for first place with scores of 90 while Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia are at the bottom.

Among Sri Lanka's neighbors in the South Asian region India ranked at 94th, Pakistan and Nepal tied at 139th, and Bangladesh placed at 144th of the Corruption index.