Yet again Farmaajo fails to rid Somalia of ‘most corrupt’ tag
Somalia has once again been ranked as the most corrupt country in the world placing the Horn of Africa nation on the bottom of most corruption-tolerant nations for the 13th year running.
The campaign body Transparency International placed Somalia at number 180 with a Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of 9 out of 100. TI said 180 countries were assessed based on a CPI of 0-100.
Denmark (87) New Zealand (87) and Finland (86) were ranked the cleanest while Somalia, South Sudan (12) and Syria (13) occupied the fringes as the most corrupt countries in 2019.
Somalia dropped from 10 points out of 100 in 2018 to 9 out of 100 in 2019.
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TI said state fragility and poor rule of law in Somalia have left gaping holes for graft to flourish from petty bribery to high-level political corruption.
The report calls on Somalia to put in place political ac accountability structures to facilitate anti-corruption mechanisms ahead of the 2020/21 elections. The dismal performance by President Mohamed Farmaajo’s administration in tackling corruption comes at a time the country is pushing for debt relief which involves meeting stringent fiduciary conditions and promoting good governance.
Coming two years after Farmaajo wondered why Somalia could not match countries such as Denmark in in taming corruption, the report casts doubt efforts on Farmaajo’s commitment to live up to his pre-election pledge in 2016-anti-corruption.
CPI draws upon 13 data sources that capture the assessment of experts and business executives on a number of corrupt behaviours in the public sector, including bribery, diversion of public funds, use of public office for private gain, nepotism in the civil service and state capture.
The sources include African Development Bank, World Bank, and World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey among others.