New Zealand public sector tops integrity lists

State Services Minister Tony Ryall says New Zealanders will be proud their public sector continues to lead the world in integrity.

Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for 2010 was released overnight, and it again has New Zealand ranked in first place, this year alongside Denmark and Singapore.

"The fact that this is the fifth consecutive year that New Zealand has topped this list suggests that the public sector continues to work hard at delivering services in a fair and honest way that is meeting New Zealanders' expectations," Tony Ryall said.

This finding comes on the heels of the release of the World Bank's Worldwide Governance Indicators, where New Zealand was ranked second out of 212 nations in control of corruption and third in both regulatory quality and rule of law.

The full Transparency International findings are available at http://www.transparency.org/