By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
Sierra Leone has risen five places this year in Transparency International’s Global Corruption Ranking – from 115 in 2021 – to 110, out of 180 countries surveyed in the 2022 Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (TI-CPI).
This was disclosed in a press release by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) of Sierra Leone dated 31st January, 2023.
The country is said to have maintained its score of 34 (thirty-four) in 2022, which is above the Sub-Saharan average and the highest the country has recorded since the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) ranking began.
It’s reported that Sierra Leone continues to make consistent and incremental progress in the ranking, leading seventy countries in the global campaign against corruption, thirty-three of them on the African continent that include neighboring Guinea and Liberia.
The release however stated that this year’s CPI reveals that 124 (one hundred and twenty four) countries have stagnant corruption levels, while the number of countries in decline is said to be increasing.
“Nonetheless, Sierra Leone performed better than the average score in Sub-Saharan Africa for the third year and has consistently improved in the past four years. The CPI is an annual survey used by TI, the leading global civil society watchdog on the global fight against corruption, to assess comparative perceived levels of public sector corruption in countries across the World,” the release states.
It went on to note that the country has “excellently” and consecutively passed its score in the ‘Control of Corruption’ indicator in the Millennium Challenge Corporation Scorecard, which moved from 49% in 2017 to 79% in 2022.
It also mentioned how improvements have been recorded by other respectable global corruption measurement institutions like Afrobarometer which confirmed that corruption prevalence in the country reduced considerably from 70% in 2015 to a low of 40% by 2020.
The latest ranking by TI-CPI is the highest ever to be achieved.
Copyright © 2023 Politico Online (01/02/23)
