ESWATINI RATED 14TH MOST CORRUPT COUNTRY

MBABANE - Having made the fight against corruption his priority, it seems like Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini and his government will have to work even harder.
This is because the year 2018 has seen less improvement in terms of fighting corruption.

According to the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) Report 2018, the Kingdom of Eswatini is still listed as among the countries where corruption was at the highest rate.
The index compared the year 2018 with that of 2017, and the country showed a slight decline as it scored 38 out of 100 per cent compared to 37.

Out of the 49 countries which were assessed in Africa, Eswatini came out as position 14. 

Index

The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
Worldwide, Eswatini was rated as position 89.
More than two-thirds of countries scored below 50 on this year’s CPI, with an average score of just 43. 
The analysis revealed that the continued failure of most countries to significantly control corruption was contributing to a crisis in democracy around the world.

“While there are exceptions, the data shows that despite some progress, most countries are failing to make serious inroads against corruption,” reads part of the report.
The case of Eswatini is not unique to just itself but the rest of the sub-Saharan countries as the report stated that there was a continuous struggle to fight corruption.

“This year’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) presents a largely gloomy picture for Africa – only eight of 49 countries score more than 43 out of 100 on the index. Despite commitments from African leaders in declaring 2018 as the African Year of Anti-Corruption, this has yet to translate into concrete progress,” the report stated.

With an average score of just 32, Sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest scoring region on the index, followed closely by Eastern Europe and Central Asia, with an average score of 35.
According to the analysis, Seychelles scored 66 out of 100, to put it at the top of the region and was followed by Botswana and Cabo Verde, with scores of 61 and 57 respectively.
At the very bottom of the index for the seventh year in a row, Somalia scored 10 points, followed by South Sudan (13) to round out the lowest scores in the region.

With an average score of just 32, sub-Saharan Africa was rated the lowest scoring region on the index, followed closely by Eastern Europe and Central Asia, with an average score of 35.

Challenges

Sub-Saharan Africa remains a region of stark political and socio-economic contrasts and many longstanding challenges.
While a large number of countries have adopted democratic principles of governance, several are still governed by authoritarian and semi-authoritarian leaders. Autocratic regimes, civil strife, weak institutions and unresponsive political systems continue to undermine anti-corruption efforts.  

Countries like Seychelles and Botswana, which score higher on the CPI than other countries in the region, have a few attributes in common.
Both have relatively well-functioning democratic and governance systems, which help contribute to their scores. However, these countries are the exception rather than the norm in a region where most democratic principles are at risk and corruption is high.
The Kingdom of Eswatini is not alone in the countries that have been described as decliners, as Mozambique was also put in the list.

The report said in the last seven years, Mozambique dropped eight points, moving from 31 in 2012 to 23 in 2018.
It was highlighted that an increase in abductions and attacks on political analysts and investigative journalists creates a culture of fear, which is detrimental to fighting corruption.
Furthermore, the report listed Angola, Nigeria, Botswana, South Africa and Kenya as all important countries to watch, given some promising political developments but that the real test would be whether these new administrations would follow through on their anti-corruption commitments moving forward.



.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: