The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has on Thursday January 28, 2021, informed the public in a press statement that Sierra Leone has made progress by moving two places, from 119 in 2019 to 117 out of 180 countries surveyed in the 2020 Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (TI-CPI).
According to the ACC, while making these progresses, the country also maintains it score of thirty-three (33), which is above the average in sub-Sahara, emphasizing the ranking stands as the highest score the country has ever recorded since the CPI rankings began.
“In two years, Sierra Leone has moved twelve (12) places upwards on the CPI, from 129 in 2018, to 117 in 2020,” the ACC said. In 2017 Sierra Leone was ranked at 130 in the CPI. The ACC said that the 2020 CPI, released on Thursday January 28, 2021, shows that Sierra Leone continues to make remarkable progress in the World’s most respected corruption watchdog’s assessment and rankings.
“[Sierra Leone] now leads sixty-three (63) countries in the global campaign against corruption, including 30 African countries, among which are; Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Malawi, Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Kenya and at par with Egypt,” ACC laments.
“ This year’s Report reveals that nearly half of the countries have been stagnant on the Index for almost a decade, indicating stalled Government efforts to tackle the root causes of corruption. Nonetheless, Sierra Leone performed better than the Average Score in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
The CPI is an annual survey used by Transparency International, the leading global civil society watchdog on the global fight against corruption, to assess comparative perceived levels of public sector corruption in countries across the World.
The ACC says that in three years, Sierra Leone has consistently increased its score in the ‘Control of Corruption’ Indicator in the Millennium Challenge Corporation Scorecard, moving from Forty-Nine percent (49%) in 2017, to Eighty-One percent (81%) in 2020, making a Thirty-Two percentage (32%) upwards trend, thereby contributing to Sierra Leone’s eligibility to the Multi-Million Dollars MCC Compact Grant.
“Similar exponential jumps have been recorded in other respected global corruption measurement institutions like Afrobarometer which confirmed that corruption prevalence has massively reduced from 70 in 2015 to a new low of 40% in 2020,” the Commission reiterated.
The Commission went on to reassure all Sierra Leoneans of its relentless determination to ensure the country continues to perform favorably in National, Sub-regional, Regional, and Global anti-corruption governance indices, as it mandate in the fight against corruption continues.
By Hasbin Shaw
29/01/2021. ISSUE NO: 7991