By ETimes
Zimbabwe’s ranking remained unchanged at 157 out of 180 countries in the 2022 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), with its CPI score also unchanged at 23, according to a global league table released by Transparency International (TI) on Tuesday.
The index uses a scale of 0 to 100, with 0 being extremely corrupt, and is regarded as the leading global indicator of public service corruption.
Each year, the Berlin-based watchdog TI releases an index of public perceptions of corruption in public institutions.
While the southern African nation’s CPI score stood at 23, it is below the regional (sub-Saharan Africa) average score of 32. TI stated that the SSA was the lowest scoring region.
In 2021, a Maverick Citizen report estimates that Zimbabwe could be losing up to US$5 billion annually due to corruption related dealings.
Analysts raise the need to tackle high-level graft as it is one of the reasons foreign companies are hesitant to invest in the country.
Previously, the country registered its worst ever CPI performance in 2008, when it ranked 166, while 1998 ranks as the best performance ever.
Top in SSA was Seychelles, after being ranked 23 and getting a CPI score of 70. Somalia claimed the bottom spot at number 180 with a CPI score of 12.
“The Covid-19 pandemic severely affected livelihoods, deepening inequalities and increasing corruption risks across SSA,” TI stated.
“The region remains the lowest performer on the CPI, with an average score of 32. Forty-four of the 49 countries assessed still score below 50, and significant declines in many countries outweigh the gains made in a few.”
Globally, the best performing country was Denmark, with a score of 90 – Harare