How Ghana Fares In The 2006 Corruption Report Tuesday, 07 November 2006

Ghana has been ranked 70th on the list of 163 countries included in the 2006 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), a rating the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) interprets as a pointer that "Ghana is far from winning the fight against corruption".
Scoring 3.3 out of 10, it represents a drop from last year’s score of 3.5 and is also exactly the score the country obtained in 1999 and 2003.
This was made known at a news conference in Accra yesterday to launch this year’s Transparency International (T.I) CPI report by Linda Ofori-Kwafo, Acting Executive Secretary of the GII which is the local chapter of TI.
The CPI has been published annually by TI over the past 12 years and Ghana has been included in the Index for the last eight years. This year’s study increased the number of countries from 159 in 2005 to 163, this year.
Mrs. Kwafo noted that since Ghana was included in the index, 3.3 has been the lowest score and 3.9 the highest score in 2002 saying that as Ghanaians, "we should be concerned with Ghana’s 2006 CPI score because it authenticates the findings of local surveys conducted in Ghana in the year 2005".
She said "in fact this year’s CPI score of 3.3 takes Ghana back to its lowest point since its inclusion in TI’s annual corruption rankings and indicates clearly that the nation has retrogressed in the anti-corruption battle. It is also worth noting that Ghana has been stagnating at the bottom third position of the CPI for some time".
Putting the index in a continental and global perspective, she said almost three-quarters of the 163 countries surveyed in the 2006 index scored less than 5 out of the clean score of 10, an indication that most countries in the world faced serious perceived levels of domestic corruption.
The report, which was simultaneously launched at the TI’s Secretariat in Berlin, and around the world stated that in Africa, only two countries, Botswana and Mauritius, scored above five points, which is commonly seen as the threshold for serious corruption.
"Forty–five countries in Africa were included in this year’s index. Ghana ranked seventh from the top coming after countries like Botswana, Mauritius, South Africa, Tunisia, Namibia, Seychelles and Egypt", the report stated.
Proposing measures to reduce the perception of corruption, the GII recommended among other things that Cabinet should adopt the Right to Information Bill and lay it before Parliament for passage into law as it is long overdue in order to enhance transparency and accountability in public life.
It also called for reforms to the public office holder asset declaration regime to reflect international best practice and to make it effective as well as the speedy adoption and implementation of conflict of interest guidelines developed by CHRAJ in collaboration with the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition.
The CPI focuses mainly on corruption in the public sector, and defines corruption as the abuse of public office for private gain. The surveys used in compiling the CPI ask questions that relate to the misuse of public power for private benefit, with a focus, for example, on bribe taking by public officials in public procurement, or embezzlement of public funds.