In TI's Corruption Perceptions Index 2021, Pakistan scores 28 out of 100
The absence of a central agency to coordinate action against corruption was a core factor in driving Pakistan to its lowest in recent years on a global perceived corruption index in 2020, watchdog Transparency International said on Tuesday.
The group’s annual report on business leaders’ perceptions of corruption — which gave Pakistan a score of 28 out of 100, down from 31 in 2020 — also cited the “failure” of the state to uphold rights and consult citizens.
That put Pakistan, at 140, behind India in 85th place, while Bangladesh stood at 147 with a Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) of 26.
The 2021 index ranks 180 countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. The index assigns scores of between one and 100, one being highly corrupt and 100 clean.
The score is derived from a range of 13 sources measuring corruption perceived by experts and business executives. It measures the use of public office for private gain, nepotism, bribery, the diversion of public money and state capture.
The score is also a reflection of the strength of integrity and anti-corruption systems, including “the existence of adequate laws on financial disclosure, conflict of interest prevention and access to information”.
Transparency trumpets the CPI as “the most widely used indicator of corruption worldwide”. But the high-profile and widely reported index has amassed its fair share of critics over the last two decades.
A Guardian report attacked the CPI’s reliance on the opinions of a small group of experts and business people. “This embeds a powerful and misleading elite bias in popular perceptions of corruption and can lead to inappropriate policy responses,” it said.
Pakistan is among two-thirds of nations across the world that are either stagnating or showing signs of deterioration in their anti-corruption efforts.
Under the government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), which came to power on an anti-corruption platform, Pakistan’s ranking has gradually slid. In 2019, it was 120 out of 180 nations, 124 in the following year, and in 2021, it slipped further to 140.
In contrast, in 2018, the last year of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government, the rating stood at 117 out of 180 governments.
Commenting on the report, the vice chairperson of the Berlin-based agency’s Pakistan chapter, retired Justice Nasira Javed Iqbal, observed there was no change in CPI scores of India and Bangladesh from 2020.
The top performers in the Asia Pacific are New Zealand (88), Singapore (85) and Hong Kong (76).
However, most countries sit firmly below the global average of 43. This includes three countries — Cambodia (23), Afghanistan (16) and North Korea (16) — with some of the lowest scores in the world.
“While countries in the Asia Pacific have made great strides in controlling bribery for public services, an average score of 45 out of 100 on the 2021 CPI shows much more needs to be done to solve the region’s corruption problems,” a Transparency report said.
The government is also battling to improve the regulations to avert being blacklisted by the global financial body, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), in what could be a bitter blow to an economy already beset by a weakening currency, rising inflation and slower growth.
Many have urged the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to push banks to improve anti-money laundering systems and information sharing across the sector.
RESIGNATION OF GOVT SOUGHT
Commenting on the contents of the report, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif declared Transparency International testified for the second time the PTI government “has broken all records of corruption in the last 20 years”.
In a statement, Sharif, who is facing a plethora of corruption cases, claimed corruption had “decreased” during his party’s government as a result of “transparency, good governance and legal reforms”.
Under deposed prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s “transparency [and] good governance”, corruption had declined as legal reforms of PML-N improved the ranking of Pakistan in the corruption index by 23 points and the country’s image improved in the world.
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2022/01/25/pakistan-ranks-140-out-of-180-on-global-corruption-index/
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