Ghana ranked 80 out of 180 countries on the 2019 global Corruption Perception Index, CPI, according to Transparency International (TI).
According to the report, Ghana scored 41 out of a possible clean score of 100 – the same score as the previous year, 2018.
To ensure Ghana improves on its performance, the Government has been advised to enforce sanctions against vote-buying, abuse of incumbency and threats to voters to ensure this year’s [2020] election is held in a free and fair environment.
The report also asked the Electoral Commission to also enforce sections 13 and 14 of the Political Parties Act, 2000( Act 574) which deals with declaration of assets and expenditure by political parties.
Details of Index
In this year’s index, Denmark and New Zealand top with 87 points each. Syria, South Sudan, and Somalia were at the bottom of the Index with 13, 12 and 9 points respectively.
The highest-scoring region was Western Europe and European Union with an average score of 66, while the lowest scoring region was Sub Sahara Africa, with an average score of 32.
In 2015, Ghana scored 47 and in 2016, came down to 43. In 2017, it recorded the worst performance with an average score of 40 out of 100 and rose marginally to 41 in 2018 and maintained that figure in 2019.
Even though Ghana performed better than neighboring Burkina Faso as well as Lesotho, the country could not catch up with countries like South Africa, Senegal, São Tomé and Principe that scored better than Ghana in 2018.