How does Sri Lanka rank in terms of corruption?

Saturday, 16 August 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Corruptions Perceptions Index (CPI) and rankings are the most widely used indicators of public sector corruption worldwide. Compiled annually by the Transparency International, the CPI provides a measure of how a country is perceived by business people and country experts in terms of its level of public sector corruption. The index is a composite index, which takes into account a combination of surveys and assessments of corruption from a variety of reputable institutions.

A country’s CPI score ranges from 0-100, where 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 100 means it is perceived as very clean. The lower the score, more corrupt the country is perceived to be. The Transparency International provides comparable data for 2012 and 2013. Accordingly, Sri Lanka’s CPI score was 40 in 2012, which ranked the country as the 79th out of 176 countries. The lower score indicates that Sri Lanka is perceived to be fairly highly corrupt. The CPI score worsened to 37 in 2013 putting Sri Lanka on the 91th spot among 177 countries. A higher ranking indicates more perceived corruption. Sri Lanka is in the company of Malawi and Morocco, which are similarly-ranked in 2013. Burkina Faso, El Salvador, Jamaica, Liberia, Mongolia, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, and Zambia are ranked just ahead of Sri Lanka. This worsening of the corruption index and the ranking for Sri Lanka reflects increased perception of public sector corruption under the current Sri Lankan regime. According to Transparency International: “Unless serious counter measures are taken, the CPI scores forecast an adverse long-term impact on economic progress, fuelling people’s discontent with their governments. The same principle applies to other countries such as Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Papua New Guinea, Cambodia and Timor-Leste, all of which boast significant economic growth over the past few years, yet fall far short in their efforts to devise an inclusive approach to fighting corruption.” Further, it states that: “If the prediction of an Asian-dominated 21st century is to become a reality, it is time for every government in the region to pay serious attention to the price of corruption, and the conspicuous and secretive modes in which it could take place. Thus sustainable development which embraces structural equality throughout the region can only be achieved with serious measures to counter corruption.” The types of actions that are required to combat corruption pointed out by the Transparency International include cracking down on money laundering and large-scale political corruption, cleaning up of political finance, building more transparent and accountable public institutions, oversight of big public contracts, bringing legal framework and regulations in line with acceptable standards, strengthening anti-corruption institutions and enforcement mechanisms, and opening up space for civil society and the media to monitor and tackle corruption culture at all levels of the society. The Sri Lankan Government’s stated mission is for Sri Lanka to become the Miracle of Asia. However, increasing perception of corruption in the country is not at all a positive sign of progress toward that vision.