Guyana makes leaps in 2019 Corruption Perception Index
─ among 22 countries making significant improvements since 2012
―ranks 85th alongside Trinidad and Tobago
DPI, Guyana, Thursday, January 23, 2020
Guyana has taken a quantum leap upward in the Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2019, continuing the progress it has been making over the last eight years.
Out of the 180 countries assessed, Guyana has earned a score of 40 and is ranked 85th, alongside regional counterpart Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) and middle eastern country Kuwait, among others.
Guyana has moved eight places up from last year, where the country was ranked 93 out of 180.
According to the TI report, only 22 countries over the last eight years, have significantly improved their CPI scores. These include Greece, Guyana and Estonia. During the same period, 21 countries saw significant decreases in their scores, including Canada, Australia and Nicaragua. In the remaining 137 countries, the levels of corruption show little to no change.
With a score of 40, Guyana has significantly improved. While there is still much to be done, the Coalition Government is demonstrating the political will to hold former politicians accountable for the misuse of state resources.
Late 2019, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna lauded Guyana’s fight against corruption.
UNODC during a courtesy call on Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams SC, officials were impressed with the volume of legislation passed in a short time by the chamber.
The Corruption Perceptions Index is the Transparency International’s flagship research product. Since its inception in 1995, it has become the leading global indicator of public sector corruption.
The index offers an annual snapshot of the relative degree of corruption by ranking countries and territories from all over the globe. In 2012, Transparency International revised the methodology used to construct the index to allow for comparison of scores from one year to the next.
The 2019 CPI draws on 13 surveys and expert assessments to measure public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories, giving each a score from zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).