Corruption: There is more room for improvement - GII

The Research and Programmes Officer for Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Mary Addah, says there is more room for improvement with respect to Ghana’s fight against corruption.

This comment comes after Ghana scored an average mark of 43 out of 100 on the 2020 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) released by Transparency International performing better than 39 other Sub-Saharan African (SSA) including Benin, Lesotho, Burkina Faso, and Ethiopia, etc.

This shows an increase from 2019’s score of 41 pacings the country at the 75 out of 180 countries/territories included in this year’s index.

Ghana’s score of 43 placed her 10th in SSA with Seychelles ranking highest with 66 points followed by Botswana with 60, Cabo Verde with 58, Rwanda with 54, and Mauritius scored 53 as the top five countries.

Ghana’s score also exceeds the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) average score of 32 and is equal to the global average score of 43. The TI 2020 CPI scores and ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption.

The CPI draws upon 13 data sources which capture the assessment of experts and business executives on a number of corrupt behaviours in the public sector. It uses a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Speaking on Atinka FM’s AM Drive with host Kaakyire Ofori Ayim, Research and Programs Officer for Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), Mary Addah, explained that although the 43 out of 100 marks on the is CPI still nothing to write home about.

“Even in school when you score 43 out of 100 it means you didn’t do your best. This should encourage us to work hard and ensure that we also score the 60’s and above, that is when we can say that we are doing well with the fight against corruption”, she added.

She called on Ghana to look out for reasons behind Botswana, Rwanda and others high marks and work towards achieving same.