Georgia has fallen from 66th place to 68th out of 178 countries on the Transparency International’s (TI) 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index released on October 26.

The index gave Georgia score of 3.8, against 4.1 in 2009 and 3.9 in 2008.

The index scores countries on a scale from 0 - perceived to be highly corrupt to 10 - perceived to have low levels of corruption.

Transparency International Georgia said the decline in Georgia’s score was “not substantial” and added that areas of concern remain “the urgent need for judicial reform, protection of property rights, a lack of transparency in public spending (including the Reserve Funds for the President, the Mayor of Tbilisi and the Government), grand corruption among top-level officials, opaque media ownership and financing, as well as a general low level of civil society involvement in the planning and execution of public policy.”

"Georgia’s score shows that corruption has not been eradicated and continues to be an issue that needs to be addressed", Mathias Huter, acting director of TI Georgia said.

Georgia is ranked between Italy (67) and Brazil (69) and is ahead of other former Soviet states, except of the Baltic States, as well as ahead of EU-member Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.