– Guyana improves by one after falling spots behind in 2021
Transparency International (TI) Tuesday said no country in the Americas, including the Caribbean, had significantly improved its score since 2017 as it released the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) showing that corruption remains prevalent across the Americas, as rates remain stagnant in the region.
The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). The Americas average holds at 43, and nearly two-thirds of countries rank below 50.
According to the TCI, Barbados (65) scored the highest among the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries followed by The Bahamas (64) Dominica (55), St. Lucia (55), Grenada (52) Jamaica (44) Trinidad and Tobago (42), Suriname (40) and Haiti (17).
In Latin America, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Cuba reached all-time lows on Transparency International’s corruption index released on Tuesday due to increased organized crime by public institutions, co-optation by political and economic elites and increased human rights abuses.
“Weak governments fail to stop criminal networks, social conflict, and violence, and some exacerbate threats to human rights by concentrating power in the name of tackling insecurity,” said Delia Ferreira Rubio, head of Transparency International, a Berlin-based anti-corruption group.
(With reporting from CNW Network and the St. Kitts & Nevis Observer)
