Friday, March 29, 2024
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Ethiopia improves slightly on global corruption index

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The annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), released by Transparency International (TI), has ranked Ethiopia 107 of 180 countries included in the index for the year 2017.
The index, which ranks countries on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), awarded Ethiopia a score of 35 – a slight improvement from 2016 and 2015 when the country was given 34 and 33 points, respectively.
The report states that failure to punish individuals implicated in graft continues to be a major stumbling block. Incompetence and ineffectiveness of anti-corruption agencies also attributed to the poor ranking.
Among East African countries Rwanda was the top performer with a score of 55 at position 48.
TOP AND BOTTOM
In the new report, there were no changes at the top and bottom with New Zealand and Denmark ranked highest with scores of 89 and 88 respectively. Syria, South Sudan and Somalia were the lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9 respectively similar to 2016.
Western Europe was ranked the best performing region with an average score of 66.
The worst performing regions are Sub-Saharan Africa (average score 32) and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (average score 34).
Botswana emerged the highest ranked country in Africa with a score of 61 followed by Rwanda.
The newly released CPI provides a good baseline for the African Union (AU) anti-corruption efforts in 2018. This year the theme for the AU is: “Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation.”
‘In some ways, the CPI points to a more hopeful future for Africa. The transformations in Rwanda and Cabo Verde show that corruption is manageable with well-sustained effort. Long-term anti-corruption investments in countries like Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal are also steadily paying off. On the other hand, tackling corruption remains a herculean task for countries at the bottom of the index, like South Sudan and Somalia,’ the reports reads.
‘Despite being the worst performing region as a whole, Africa has several countries that consistently push back against corruption, and with notable progress. In fact, some African countries score better than some countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Specifically, Botswana, Seychelles, Cabo Verde, Rwanda and Namibia all score better on the index compared to some OECD countries like Italy, Greece and Hungary. In addition, Botswana and Seychelles, which score 61 and 60 respectively, do better than Spain at 57’ the report further reads.
The key ingredient that the top performing African countries have in common is political leadership that is consistently committed to anti-corruption. While the majority of countries already have anti-corruption laws and institutions in place, these leading countries go an extra step to ensure implementation.
The report also recommends that governments and businesses do more to encourage free speech, independent media, political dissent and an open and engaged civil society and should minimize regulations on media, including traditional and new media, and ensure that journalists can work without fear of repression or violence. In addition, international donors should consider press freedom relevant to development aid or access to international organisations.

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