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1. Jamaica has improved 5 places in Transparency International’s 2020 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) Country Rankings. It has risen from position #74 out of 180 countries in 2019, to position #69 out of 180 countries in 2020. TI’s Rankings were released this morning, Jan 28.
2. Jamaica’s positive performance in 2020 in the TI Country Rankings has reversed 2 consecutive years of a negative trend. The country had previously fallen 2 places from position #68 in 2017, to position #70 in 2018. It had then dropped another 4 spots to position #74 in 2019.
3. Jamaica has also recorded an improved 2020 CPI score of 44 out 100, where 0 means ‘Highly Corrupt’, and 100 ‘Very Clean’, coming from a CPI score of 43 in 2019. Jamaica’s 2020 CPI score of 44 equals its best ever score of 44, previously attained only in 2017 and 2018.
4. In the 19 years (2002-2020) that TI has been ranking Jamaica, the country has averaged a CPI of only 37.5 out of 100. Prior to its 2017 and 2018 CPI scores of 44, JA had never scored higher than 41 - its CPI score in 2015. JA’s lowest CPI score ever was 30, recorded in 2009.
5. Jamaica’s previous jump in TI’s 2017 rankings came in the same year that Parliament had passed a long awaited anti-corruption law - the Integrity Commission Act. The Act merged the country’s 3 leading Anti-Corruption Commissions into a single agency - the Integrity Commission.
6. A CPI score of below 50 means that a country has a serious corruption problem. Jamaica has been firmly planted in this category. A poor CPI signals prevalent bribery, lack of punishment for corruption, and public institutions that do not respond to citizens’ needs.
7. Nine English-Speaking Caribbean Countries were ranked by TI in 2020. Barbados, Bahamas and St Vincent came out on top, with Jamaica, Guyana and T&T at the bottom. Trinidad has now switched places with Guyana to become the worst ranking country, in the region, in TI’s CPI.
8. The Bahamas, which was ranked the least corrupt of the 9 English-Speaking C’bean Countries in 2019, relinquished the top spot in 2020 to Barbados. The 9 Caribbean countries, their Country Rankings (out of 180), and their CPI Scores (out of 100), are shown as follows:
9. TI’s 2020 English-Speaking Caribbean CPI Country Rankings: Country Rank (out of 180) and CPI (out of 100):
Barbados 29/64
Bahamas 30/63
St. Vincent 40/59
St. Lucia 45/56
Dominica 48/55
Grenada 52/53
Jamaica 69/44
Guyana 83/41
T&T 86/40
Barbados 29/64
Bahamas 30/63
St. Vincent 40/59
St. Lucia 45/56
Dominica 48/55
Grenada 52/53
Jamaica 69/44
Guyana 83/41
T&T 86/40
10. Topping Transparency International’s 2020 CPI Country Rankings, not surprisingly, are the typical repeat outstanding performers of Denmark, New Zealand, Finland, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg, in that order.
11. At the other end of the scale, in TI’s 2020 CPI Country Rankings, are South Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, North Korea, and Haiti, in that order.
12. TI says that this year’s CPI has painted “a grim picture of the state of corruption worldwide”. It observed that while most countries have made little to no progress in tackling corruption in nearly a decade, more than two-thirds of countries scored below 50.
13. Regarding reports of corruption during Covid-19, it said that this had reverberated across the globe. “Our analysis shows corruption not only undermines the global health response to COVID-19, but contributes to a continuing crisis of democracy,” TI said.
14. “As the past tumultuous year has shown, COVID-19 is not just a health and economic crisis, but a corruption crisis as well, with countless lives lost due to the insidious effects of corruption undermining a fair and equitable global response,” TI reported.
15. Since its inception in 1995, the CPI, TI’s flagship research product, has become the leading global indicator of public sector corruption. The index offers an annual snapshot of the relative degree of corruption by ranking countries and territories from all over the globe.
16. TI’s 2020 CPI draws upon 13 surveys and expert assessments to measure public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories. To examine Transparency International's 2020 Corruption Perception Index Rankings in detail, please click on this link: https://images.transparencycdn.org/images/2020_Report_CPI_EN.pdf
