Bahrain is winning the war against corruption, according to a global report.

It moved up three places in the annual Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index.

Bahrain came fourth in the Gulf behind Qatar, UAE and Oman, but was ranked ahead of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

The index is published in the civil society organisation's 'Global Corruption Report 2009: Corruption and the Private Sector', which was launched in Berlin, Germany.

It measures perceived levels of public sector corruption in 180 countries and is a composite index, drawing on expert and business surveys.

Bahrain was ranked 43rd, behind Qatar at 28th, the UAE at 35th, and Oman at 41st.

However, it was placed ahead of Kuwait, which was ranked 65th and Saudi Arabia 80th.

Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden tied for first place on the index, while Somalia came last.

Transparency International's latest report reveals how global corruption resulting from bribery, price-fixing cartels and undue influence on public policy is costing billions and obstructing the path towards sustainable economic growth.

It shows that corrupt practices constitute a destructive force that undermines fair competition, stifles economic growth and ultimately undercuts a business's own existence.

The report documents various cases of managers, majority shareholders and others inside corporations who abuse their entrusted power for personal gain, to the detriment of owners, investors, employees and society at large.

More than 75 experts were involved in examining the scale, scope and consequences of a wide range of issues, including bribery and policy capture, corporate fraud, cartels, corruption in supply chains and trans-national transactions, emerging challenges for carbon trading markets, sovereign wealth funds and growing economic centres.

The Global Corruption Report 2009 discusses the most promising tools to tackle corruption in business, identifies pressing areas for reform and outlines how companies, governments, investors, consumers and other stakeholders can contribute to raising corporate integrity and meeting the challenges that corruption poses to sustainable economic growth and development.

Meanwhile, Bahrain has been removed from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)'s list of unco-operative tax havens.

It follows its signing of taxation conventions with Bulgaria in June and Austria in July that provide for exchange of information in accordance with OECD standards.

These agreements bring to 12 the number of deals Bahrain has signed that meet OECD standards.

As a result, the organisation considers Bahrain as having substantially implemented the internationally agreed tax standard. It uses four key factors to determine whether a jurisdiction is a tax haven.

These include whether the jurisdiction imposes no or nominal taxes, along with key factors such as whether there is a lack of transparency and whether there are laws or administrative practices that prevent the effective exchange of information for tax purposes with other governments on taxpayers benefiting from the no or nominal taxation.

The fourth factor is whether there is an absence of a requirement that the activity be substantial.-TradeArabia News Service