By Brima Sannoh
In a latest release, Sierra Leone is said to have progressed ten (10) places upwards in the Transparency International’s Global Corruption Ranking, moving from 129 in 2018, to 119 out of 180 countries surveyed in the 2019 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (TI-CPI). The country also increased its score from a stagnant thirty (30) points in 2016, 2017, and 2018, to thirty-three (33) in 2019, making a three (3) points gain, scoring above the sub-Saharan average of 32.
The CPI, released on Thursday 23rd January 2020, reveals that for the first time, in more than five years, Sierra Leone is ranked under 120, and the thirty three (33) points scored is the highest the country has ever achieved since its inclusion in the TI index. Sierra Leone now leads sixty one (61) countries in the global campaign against corruption, and more than 28 African countries, including Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Togo, Kenya, among others.
This year’s report reveals that “Sub-Saharan Africa’s performance paints a bleak picture of inaction against corruption,” revealing that “a staggering number of countries are showing little to no improvement in tackling corruption.” The report also suggests that “more than two-thirds of countries – along with many of the world’s most advanced economies – are stagnating or showing signs of backsliding in their anti-corruption efforts.
The CPI is an annual survey indicator used by TI, the global civil society organization leading the fight against corruption, to assess perceived levels of public sector corruption across the world.
Within the past two years, Sierra Leone has increased its score in the ‘Control of Corruption’ Indicator in the Millennium Challenge Corporation Scorecard, moving from forty-nine percent (49%) in 2017, to seventy-nine (79%) percent in 2019, making thirty percent (30%) upwards. By that report, Sierra Leone is among the top ten performers in our income category.
Similarly, Sierra Leone has also scored high in other global and regional anti-corruption rankings. In the Global Corruption Barometer of 2018*, the country is ranked 3rd out of thirty five (35) African Countries surveyed on “Government’s Effectiveness in the Fight against Corruption.” In the Afro-Barometer 2018, fifty four (54%) of Sierra
Leoneans agreed that the government is performing “very well” in the fight
