The 2020 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) has placed Ghana 10 in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with a score of 43, two points higer than the score gained in 2019, according to report by the Ghana Intergrity Initiative.
The score also ranks Ghana 75 globally out of 180 countries included in the years index. In SSA, the average score is 32, whereas globally the average score is 43. Ghana’s score therefore exceeds the average score of SSA with 11 points and equates that of the world.
Countries that have performed better than Ghana in Sub-Saharan Africa include Seychelles 66, Botswana 60, Cabo Verde 58, Rwanda 54, and Mauritius 53 among other four countries.
Countries Ghana outdid are Benin, Lesotho and Burkina Faso who scored 41, 41 and 40 respectively.
Globally, South Sudan and Somalia rank the lowest with 12 points each whilst Denmark and New Zealand topped the list with 88 points each.
Ghana is amongst many countries that have improved their CPI whereas “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” according to the report.
Whilst commending the Government of Ghana for measures adopted to tackle the pandemic and its related impacts, the Ghana Integrity Initiative makes certain recommendations to government to reduce accountability issues and improve upon its Corruption Perception Index.
Amongst the recommendations is strengthening of oversight institutions by making sure that needed resources are made available to them. “Anti-corruption authorities and oversight institutions must have sufficient funds, resources, and independence to perform their duties in real time to identify and prevent diversion of government support” they said.
The government should “enforce procurement rules to all contracts” while “ensuring open and transparent contracting to combat wrongdoing, identify conflicts of interest and ensure fair pricing.”
They GII also recommended that government “publishes relevant data and guarantee access to information” for public consumption.
The government, in addition to the afore mentioned, should “speed up the digitisation of the economy to facilitate more efficient and transparent delivery of key services in the pandemic period and also facilitates the ease of doing business and prevent artificial opacity.”
They should also “defend the democracy and promote civic space and rights to create the eenablin conditions to hold governments accountable.”
