Guyana went up by one point with a score of 41 and ranking of 83 out of 180 countries in the latest Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) Report 2020 released yesterday.
An earlier report by Stabroek News had stated that the score reflected that the country had dropped a point but the figures really showed that the country has improved by one point from last year when it had its biggest improvement and had jumped three points to 40 and was ranked at 85. Stabroek News regrets the error.
The CPI scores 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and business people, 100 is very clean and 0 is highly corrupt.
The highest ranking Caribbean country is Barbados with a score of 64 and a ranking of 29. It is followed by The Bahamas with a score of 63 and a ranking of 30, St Vincent and the Grenadines with a score of 59 and ranking of 40, Dominica with a score of 55 and ranking of 48, Grenada with a score of 53 and ranking of 52 and Jamaica with a score off 44 and ranking of 69. Trinidad is below Guyana with a score of 40 and a ranking of 86.
According to the new report as in previous years, more than two-thirds of the countries surveyed scored below 50 on this year’s CPI, with an average score of just 43. The data showed that despite some progress, most countries still fail to tackle corruption effectively. In addition to earning poor scores, nearly half of all countries have been stagnant on the CPI for almost a decade. These countries have failed to move the needle in any significant way to improve their score and combat public sector corruption.
The report said that the top countries on the CPI are Denmark and New Zealand, with scores of 88, followed by Finland, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland, with scores of 85 each. The countries at the bottom are South Sudan and Somalia, with scores of 12 each, followed by Syria (14), Yemen (15) and Venezuela (15). And since 2012, 26 countries improved their CPI scores, including Greece, Myanmar and Ecuador. In the same period, 22 countries saw their scores decline, including Lebanon, Malawi and Bosnia & Herzegovina.
“Corruption continues to contribute to democratic backsliding during the COVID-19 pandemic. Countries with higher levels of corruption rely on less democratic responses to the crisis,” the report said.
The United States has a score of 67 and according to the report it has reached its lowest position on the CPI since 2012. “The Administration’s challenges to oversight of the unprecedented US$1 trillion COVID-19 relief package raised serious anticorruption concerns and marked a significant retreat from longstanding democratic norms promoting accountable government,” the report said of the US.
“This year’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) paints a grim picture of the state of corruption worldwide. While most countries have made little to no progress in tackling corruption in nearly a decade, more than two-thirds of countries score below 50,” the new CPI report said.
“Our analysis shows corruption not only undermines the global health response to COVID-19, but contributes to a continuing crisis of democracy,” it continued.
According to the report, 2020 proved to be one of the “worst years in recent history, with the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating effects”. It noted that the health and economic impact on individuals and communities worldwide has been catastrophic.
Its figures indicated that more than 90 million people were infected, and nearly two million people lost their lives around the world.
“As the past tumultuous year has shown, COVID-19 is not just a health and economic crisis, but a corruption crisis as well, with countless lives lost due to the insidious effects of corruption undermining a fair and equitable global response. Reports of corruption during COVID-19 have reverberated across the globe,” the report said.
