Before proceeding with today’s article, a few days ago, it was reported that Transparency International released its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2014. This is quite late, considering that in previous years the release was made in November – December for the year in question. This prompted me to recheck the date when the results for 2014 were released. That date was 3 December 2014. Readers may recall the articles I had written on 15 December 2014 and 22 December 2014 on the subject.
Be that as it may, Guyana’s score was 30 out of 100 with a ranking of 124 out of 175 countries surveyed, representing a slight improvement on our performance in 2013. This was somewhat surprising, considering that 2014 was the year when unauthorized excess expenditure of $4.544 billion was incurred, resulting in the Court ruling that there has been a violation of the Constitution. Not only that, it was in the same year that the then President ill-advisedly chose to prorogue Parliament in response to a motion of no confidence on the Government, instead of dealing with the issue that gave rise to the motion.
Since 2005, Transparency International has included Guyana in the CPI assessment. Tables I and II show Guyana’s ranking and score. Prior to 2012, an earlier methodology and scoring system was used whereby countries were rated on a scale of 0 to 10. In 2012, the methodology and scoring system changed.
