According to Transparency International, the European-based organisation that prepares and publishes an annual Corruption Perception Index, Barbados, closely followed by St Lucia and St Vincent, is certainly among the world's most highly ranked states with the lowest levels of perceived corruption.
Using a scale from zero to ten with zero indicating the lowest level of perceived honesty and ten the highest, experts assessed 180 countries.
Barbados scored 6.9 and was ranked 23rd worldwide and fourth in the Western Hemisphere, behind Canada with 8.7, the United States at 7.2, and Chile 7.3. Last year, Barbados scored 6.7 and ranked 24th while Canada received 8.7 and placed 9th in the world. In fact, Barbados' score this year is a return to its 2005 indicator. In 2006 Chile and the United States shared the 20th spot and were second in the Americas with 7.3 each.
The index, which assesses the perception of corruption in the public sector, indicated that while corruption remained a serious problem in both Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, it had worsened slightly in the past 12 months in Jamaica but improved marginally in Trinidad and Tobago.
Dominica entered the corruption-perception sweepstakes for the first time with a reasonably healthy score of 5.6 and placed 8th in the Hemisphere.
Guyana's picture brightened somewhat, going to 2.6 from 2.5 last year and pegged 123rd compared to 121st.