Zorena Jantze
A LITTLE more than a year after the so-called Fishrot scandal involving giant Icelandic fishing company, Samherji, and influential Namibian political and business figures was exposed, the Nordic island nation that has widely been criticised of taking a hands-off approach in dealing with the saga in its own country has moved up ranks in the latest Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.
The similar effect is noted in Namibia’s ranking, despite at least nine people arrested, including two former ministers, in connection with the fishrot scandal that saw billions of Namibia dollars exchanging hands after fishing quotas were reportedly sold below market value.
In 2018, Iceland was ranked the14th least corrupt country and improved its ranking in 2019 when it dropped to the 11th spot.
It, however, climbed up in ranking to the 17th spot in the most recent publication of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2020.
Despite the Iceland’s lax approach that has yielded zero arrests and prosecutions in the Fishrot saga, as well as a worse ranking in just one year, Iceland is still amongst the top 20 least corrupt countries in the world, while Namibia, which was ranked 53rd in 2018, 56th in 2019 and 57th in 2020 is still faring very poorly in comparison.
Transparency International ranks and scores a total 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption.
According to experts, where rankings are concerned, one is the least corrupt and 180 is the most corrupt, while in the case of scores, 0 is the most corrupt and 100 the least corrupt.
Denmark is currently the least corrupt in the world as it is ranked number one, followed by New Zealand at number two, Finland at number three, while the most corrupt countries are South Sudan at 180, Somalia at 179 and Syria at 178.
Other poor performing African countries on the corruption index are Equatorial Guinea at 174, Libya at 173, the Democratic Republic of Congo at 170, Guinea-Bissau, Congo and Burundi all at 165, Eritrea 160, Comoros and Chad both at 160 and Zimbabwe at 157.
In its findings, Transparency International noted that with an average score of 32, Sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest performing region on the CPI, showing little improvement from previous years and underscoring a need for urgent action.
“This year’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) paints a grim picture of the state of corruption worldwide. While most countries have made little to no progress in tackling corruption in nearly a decade, more than two-thirds of countries score below 50. Our analysis shows corruption not only undermines the global health response to COVID-19, but contributes to a continuing crisis of democracy,” Delia Ferreira Rubio, Chair of Transparency International said.
To reverse the region’s position as the worst performing on the CPI, governments in Sub-Saharan Africa must take decisive action, particularly in those economies already weakened by the ongoing economic recession stemming from COVID-19, Transparency International recommended.
