Ethiopia's Improvement on Corruption Index Attributed to Gov't Reform

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Addis Ababa ,February 15/2020 (ENA) The ongoing reform that the country is undertaking in all sectors has helped it to show improvement on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, observers believe.

According to the 2019 Transparency International Index released recently, Ethiopia is the 96th least corrupt nation out of 180 countries. The country has improved 18 ranks from 114th in 2018.

The progress made on the corruption perception index is related to the current changes that are taking place in the country, the economist Costentinos Beruh-Tesefa (PHD) told ENA.

He stated that exposing corruption in several sectors, bringing suspects before the rule of law as well as the efforts underway to establish accountability in the system are the major factors that helped the country to show improvement.

“The improvement I see within the index is related to the current changes that are taking place in the country, because now a lot of people are openly talking about corruption and the press is free to report on the crime,” the economist noted.

Progress in such indexes would help the country to show the world how it is taking steps to fight corruption and promote development.

Yet, the scholar believes that the government and the nation need to work harder to prevent corruption.

In this regard, digitalizing the financial system is very crucial to tackle corruption. “The government should pay attention to digitalizing the system because cash interactions are more vulnerable to be corrupted than digitized transaction; and it's becoming a new way to tackle corruption,” Costentinos said .

Furthermore, educating citizens not only at school but through the ethics and anti-corruption commission is essential, he added.

Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission Public Relations Team Leader, Kebebe Dadi said on his part Transparency International has its own way of ranking, but the reform could be the reason to the progress.

According to him, “the government has been working to deepen democratization and ensure accountability in the system for the last one and half years. Making the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission directly accountable to the House of People’s Representatives, and creating conducive environment to political parties for example, have highly contributed to the progress.”

He revealed that the commission is making preparations to revise the anti-corruption law that would give it additional power in the process of enforcing its mandates and preparing a strategy on ethics building among the youth and children.

The 2019 Transparency International Index places Denmark and Newzealand on top of the corruption perception index, followed by Finland.

Ethiopian News Agency
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