TP Says Undemocratic African Regimes Undermining Anti-corruption Efforts

Addis Ababa February 01/2019 Transparency International (TP) pointed out that undemocratic regimes are undermining anti-corruption efforts in its Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2018.

TP painted largely a gloomy picture for Africa as only eight of 49 countries scored more than 43 out of 100 on the index.

Despite commitments from African leaders in declaring 2018 as the African Year of Anti-Corruption, this has yet to translate into concrete progress, it stated.

In the meantime, Sub-Saharan Africa remains a region of stark political and socio-economic contrasts and many longstanding challenges. While a large number of countries have adopted democratic principles of governance, several are still governed by authoritarian and semi-authoritarian leaders.

Autocratic regimes, civil strife, weak institutions and unresponsive political systems continue to undermine anti-corruption efforts, the global civil society organization pointed out. 

Yet countries like Seychelles and Botswana that scored higher on the CPI than other countries in the region have a few attributes in common.

Both have relatively well-functioning democratic and governance systems which help contribute to their scores. However, these countries are the exception rather than the norm in a region where most democratic principles are at risk and corruption is high, the statement issued by TP stressed.

Notwithstanding Sub-Saharan Africa’s overall poor performance, there are a few countries that push back against corruption, and with notable progress.

Two countries – Côte d’Ivoire and Senegal – are, for the second year in a row, among the significant improvers on the CPI.

These gains may be attributed to the positive consequences of legal, policy and institutional reforms undertaken in both countries as well as political will in the fight against corruption demonstrated by their respective leaders.

At the very bottom of the index for the seventh year in a row are, Somalia that scores 10 points, followed by South Sudan (13) to round out the lowest scores in the region.

Many low performing countries have several commonalties, including few political rights, limited press freedoms and a weak rule of law, Transparency International stated. In these countries, laws often go unenforced and institutions are poorly resourced with little ability to handle corruption complaints. In addition, internal conflict and unstable governance structures contribute to high rates of corruption.

According to the civil society organization, Sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest scoring region on the index, followed closely by Eastern Europe and Central Asia.