Guyana slips one point on Transparency’s corruption index

Jan 30, 2019 News

An improving Guyana has slipped on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index. According to the recently released report for 2018, Guyana has 37 points, down from 38 the previous year. Overall, the country is 93 ranked out of a 180 countries.
In 2015, the Coalition Government entered office, the score was 29. This improved to 34 in 2016, then 38 in 2017.
Since its inception in 1995, the Corruption Perceptions Index, Transparency International’s flagship research product, has become the leading global indicator of public sector corruption. The index offers an annual snapshot of the relative degree of corruption by ranking countries and territories from all over the globe.
In 2012, Transparency International revised the methodology used to construct the index to allow for comparison of scores from one year to the next.
The 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories.
Drawing on 13 surveys of businesspeople and expert assessments, the index scores on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
The results, according to Transparency International, paint a sadly familiar picture, more than two-thirds of countries score below 50, while the average score is just 43.
Perhaps most disturbing is that the vast majority of countries assessed have made little to no progress, the report says.
Only 20 have made significant progress in recent years. As long as corruption continues to go largely unchecked, democracy is under threat around the world.
“Corruption chips away at democracy to produce a vicious cycle, where corruption undermines democratic institutions and, in turn, weak institutions are less able to control corruption,” said Patricia Moreira, Managing Director of Transparency International.

Guyana has been improving in terms of reducing corruption, but slipped last year.

“With many democratic institutions under threat across the globe – often by leaders with authoritarian or populist tendencies – we need to do more to strengthen checks and balances and protect citizens’ rights.”
The least corrupt region is Western Europe and European Union with the worst being the Sub-Saharan Africa.
Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland are the least corrupt while North Korean, Yemen, South Sudan, Syria and Somalia were the worst.
In terms of most improved countries, Guyana has featured, up nine points since 2012.
It is alongside Cote D’Ivoire and Argentina.

Hungary, Mexico and Malta have all been sliding and facing corruption problems.
The Americas region, in which Guyana is listed continues to fail in making any serious inroads against corruption, the report said.
“Populist leaders are transforming politics across the region, raising red flags through their treatment of the media, civil society and democratic institutions, all of which risk becoming less able to act as checks and balances against corruption,” TI said.
Canada is leading the Americas with Uruguay and Barbados following.
The United States (US) dropped four points since last year to earn its lowest score on the CPI in seven years. This decline comes at a time when the US is experiencing threats to its system of checks and balances as well as an erosion of ethical norms at the highest levels of power.
Neighbouring Venezuela, which is troubled is at 18, the most corrupt country in the Americas.
Suriname, 43, and Trinidad and Tobago, 41, both fared better than Guyana.

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