Sri Lanka has ranked 102 in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International.
The Index scores 180 countries and territories around the world based on perceptions of public sector corruption.
The scores reflect the views of experts and surveys from business people.
The CPI is calculated using data from 13 external sources, including the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, private risk, consulting companies, think tanks, and others and uses a scale from 0 to 100; 100 very clean and 0 as highly corrupt.
Sri Lanka’s score in the 2021 CPI stands at 37, one point lower than the previous year.
Sri Lanka has dropped from 94th in 2020 to 102 in 2021.
Transparency International said over the past 10 years Sri Lanka’s CPI score has remained relatively the same with the lowest score of 36 being reported in 2016 and the highest score of 40 being reported in 2012.
The report noted that types of public sector corruption captured in the CPI encompass bribery, diversion of public funds, effective prosecution of corruption cases, adequate legal frameworks, access to information, and legal protections for whistle-blowers, journalists, and investigators.
According to Transparency International, Sri Lanka’s overall performance is in line with the observation that corruption levels remain at a standstill worldwide, with 86 percent of countries making little to no progress in the last 10 years.
Denmark, Finland, and New Zealand were first ranked 88th, while Somalia (13), Syria (13), and South Sudan (11) remain at the bottom of the CPI.
Transparency International recommends that in order to combat the vicious cycle of corruption, human rights violations, and democratic decline, governments must uphold the rights needed to hold power to account, restore and strengthen institutional checks on power, combat transnational forms of corruption and uphold the right to information in government spending.
