Corruption Perceptions Index 2017

Public sector corruption: the good, the vulnerable and the really bad

The Corruption Perceptions Index 2017, an annual survey conducted by Transparency International (TI) since 1995, provides sobering insight into the perceived levels of public sector corruption worldwide. The comparative results across countries – on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean – paint a stark picture of the good, the vulnerable and the really bad. This latest Index, published on 21 February 2018, reveals that the majority of 180 countries are making little or no progress towards ending corruption. Less than a third of countries scored above the midpoint. Thus somewhat more than two thirds of countries fell within the lower, less ethical half of the scale. The average overall score was a mere 43 out of 100. These poor results are unfortunately an on-going trend echoed in previous surveys.

In this latest Index New Zealand and Denmark rank highest with scores of 89 and 88 respectively, while Syria, South Sudan and Somalia rank lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9 respectively. The best performing region is Western Europe with an average score of 66, as opposed to Sub-Saharan Africa which was the worst performing region with an average score of 32.

The results for the 49 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa are not encouraging given the number of countries that scored lower than 50. Despite TI’s recognition of good progress in some countries, the overall findings present a real challenge to individual countries and to the African Union’s anti-corruption efforts and its 2018 theme, “Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation”.