Somalia remains most corrupt country in the world – Transparency International

The campaign body Transparency International has for the 13^th year running ranked Somalia the most corrupt country in the world.

According to its 2019 report released on Thursday, Transparency International determined that Somalia is still the most corrupt nation out of 180 countries, with a score of 9 out of 100 points. Close to Somalia are South Sudan and Syria with 12 and 13 points respectively.

According to the Corruption Perception Index framework used by Transparency International, countries are rated based on expert evidence on areas such as bribery, efforts to prosecute public officers involved in corruption, existence and functioning of anti-corruption bodies and the independence of judiciary.

Other areas of assessment include protection of whistleblowers, transparency in award of public contracts and use of public facilities by government officials for private purposes among others.

Transparency International said it was imperative that Somalia puts in place measures to ensure the 2020/21 elections are cushioned from corruption by setting up of anti-corruption mechanisms.

Somalia has however rubbished the Transparency International reports in the past. Finance Minister Abdirahman Beileh dismissed the assessments as false and unreliable in 2018 noting the ‘habitual labelling’ of Somalia as the most corrupt in the world was not based on facts since Transparency International never sought Somalia’s side of the story.

However, elections in Somalia present a clear picture of pervasive corruption which has made politics a game of big money. The UN Panel of Experts in its 2019 report noted that South West MPs were flown to Mogadishu in December 2018 and each received $5,000 ahead of the state presidential poll.

Denmark and New Zealand were ranked the least corrupt countries in the world with 87 points followed by Finland in second place with 86 points.

Botswana was ranked the least corrupt country in African with 61 points followed by Rwanda with 53 while Mauritius and Namibia followed closely both with 52 points.

Somalia’s neighbours Ethiopia was ranked number 96 while Djibouti was ranked number 126 as Kenya closed the list at number 137 in the World.