Sri Lanka fell 8 places in Transparency International’s corruption perception index (CPI) for 2021, with the state now ranking 102nd in the world. With a score of 37/100, Sri Lanka drops behind countries such as Vietnam, India, China and East Timor.
The latest ranking is the second worst score it has received from Transparency International “Transparency International notes that the global COVID-19 pandemic has been used in many countries as an excuse to curtail basic freedoms and side-step important checks and balances,” said Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) in a statement.
“It adds that despite the increasing international momentum to end the abuse of anonymous shell companies, many high-scoring countries with relatively “clean” public sectors continue to enable transnational corruption.”The latest fall in Sri Lanka’s rankings comes as the island faces a massive economic crisis.
Sri Lanka’s rank has dropped from 94 in 2020 to 102 in 2021 in its Transparency International’s corruption perception index (CPI) for 2021 while Bhutan with better index had the most transparency in South Asia, the latest Transparency International data showed.
“According to Transparency International, Sri Lanka’s overall performance is in line with the observation that corruption levels remain at a standstill worldwide, with 86 percent of countries making little to no progress in the last 10 years,” the local body Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) said in a statement.
“Over the past 10 years Sri Lanka’s CPI score has remained relatively the same with the lowest score of 36 being reported in 2016 and the highest score of 40 being reported in 2012.”
CPI calculates a country’s level of public sector corruption using data collected from 13 external sources, including the World Bank, World Economic Forum, private risk and consulting companies, and think tanks.
This index calculates a range of corruption in public sector such as bribery, diversion of public funds, effective prosecution of corruption cases, adequate legal frameworks, access to information, and legal protections for whistleblowers, journalists and investigators.
The country with the highest public corruption last year was South Sudan with 11 points and Denmark remained the cleanest with 88 points.
Sri Lanka’s CPI score in 2021 was 37, one point lower than the previous year.
Bhutan with 68 points was ranked at 25th to lead in the ranking among South Asian nations. Both Maldives and India with 40 pints were ranked 85th while Nepal (117), Pakistan (140), Bangladesh (147), and Afghanistan (174) were behind Sri Lanka’s ranking.
“Transparency International notes that the global COVID-19 pandemic has been used in many countries as an excuse to curtail basic freedoms and side-step important checks and balances,” the TISL said.
“It adds that despite the increasing international momentum to end the abuse of anonymous shell companies, many high-scoring countries with relatively “clean” public sectors continue to enable transnational corruption.”
The watchdog called to reduce public sector corruption, uphold the rights needed to hold power to account, restore and strengthen institutional checks on power, combat transnational forms of corruption, and uphold the right to information in government spending to improve the index.
