Transparency International: Pakistan's 'Corruption Perception' worsened in 2020

Pakistan's position has worsened in the latest corruption index released by Transparency International on Thursday.

Transparency International, the leading civil society organisation working to end corruption worldwide, release its annual Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2020. The report showed a grim picture of persistent corruption is undermining health care systems and contributing to democratic backsliding amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sohail Muzaffar, Chairman TI Pakistan has said in CPI 2020, Pakistan’s score has lowered to 31/100 from 32/100 in 2019 and rank to 124/180 from 120/180 in 2019.

“This is despite the extraordinary efforts of NAB who claims to have recovered Rs 363 billion in the last two years, and Public Accounts Committee claims to have recovered Rs. 300 billion in the last two years,” said Muzaffar in a statement.

Sohail Muzaffar, Chairman TI Pakistan also said that Pakistan has scored less than last year in two sources: Rule of Law Index and Varieties of Democracy (VDem) due to which Pakistan score in CPI 2020 has reduced by 1. The questions asked by WJP Rule of Law Index and Varieties of Democracy are about the corruption of government officials viz. legislatures, executives, judiciary, police and military.

He said that the government has to improve its performance in these four sectors.

Meanwhile, countries that perform well on the index invest more in health care, are better able to provide universal health coverage and are less likely to violate democratic norms and institutions or the rule of law.

“The past year has tested governments like no other in memory, and those with higher levels of corruption have been less able to meet the challenge. But even those at the top of the CPI must urgently address their role in perpetuating corruption at home and abroad,” said Delia Ferreira Rubio, Chair of Transparency International.

The 2020 edition of the CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, drawing on 13 expert assessments and surveys of business executives. It uses a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).

Denmark and New Zealand top the index, with 88 points. Syria, Somalia and South Sudan come last, with 14, 12 and 12 points, respectively.

Since 2012, the earliest point of comparison in the current CPI methodology, 26 countries significantly improved their CPI scores, including Ecuador (39), Greece (50), Guyana (41), Myanmar (28) and South Korea (61).

Twenty-two countries significantly decreased their scores, including Bosnia & Herzegovina (35), Guatemala (25), Lebanon (25), Malawi (30), Malta (53) and Poland (56).

Nearly half of countries have been stagnant on the index for almost a decade, indicating stalled government efforts to tackle the root causes of corruption. More than two-thirds score below 50.