Seychelles remains top in Sub-Saharan Africa on Corruption Perception Index and climbs 3 places globally

Transparency Initiative Seychelles (TIS) acknowledges the country's current score and rank. (Marco Verch, Flickr) Photo Licence:  CC BY 2.0

Seychelles remains the top scorer in the Sub-Saharan Africa region and has improved its ranking by one point from 70 to 71 on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2023 released on Tuesday.

The island nation scored 71 points out of 100 and climbed up three spots on the global ranking moving up to 20th position out of 180 countries from all corners of the globe.

The CPI report, which is released every year on January 30, rates the perception of corruption in the public sector using a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is clean.

Transparency Initiative Seychelles (TIS) acknowledges the country's current score and rank, recognising the nation's efforts to enhance legislative frameworks for good governance and transparency in recent years.

"However, there is room for improvement. Seychelles should review and update legislation that may not be in line or may not be consistent with the constitution. Additionally, it is crucial to develop a comprehensive national anti-corruption strategy, to review the public service as a whole to ensure that its structure is consistent with the Constitution of the Third Republic, to enact whistleblower protection legislation, and properly tackle issues of impunity," said TIS.

The initiative also "commends Seychelles for its action plan within the open government partnership, especially the proposal for the Coalition of Integrity, anticipating positive impacts on governance and a potential further improvement in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) score over the next three years."

Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, is one of 17 countries that have registered their highest-ever score in this annual exercise carried out by Transparency International.

The island nation score comes from three sources: the Economist Intelligence Unit Country Ratings, Global Insights Country Risk Ratings and Varieties of Democracy Project. This has not changed in recent years and the CPI score is an indicator of perceptions of public sector corruption.

Second in the Sub-Saharan Africa region is Cabo Verde with 64 and Botswana with 59.

Denmark stayed top on the world ranking with a score of 90 followed by Finland and New Zealand with 87 mainly due to well-functioning justice systems. These countries are also among the top scorers in the Rule of Law Index.

The CPI 2023 Corruption Perceptions Index shows that most countries have made little to no progress in tackling public sector corruption with a global average at 43 for the 12th year in a row, with more than two-thirds of countries scoring below 50.

According to the Rule of Law Index, the world is experiencing a decline in the functioning of justice systems. Countries with the lowest scores in this index are also scoring very low on the CPI, highlighting a clear connection between access to justice and corruption.

Both authoritarian regimes and democratic leaders undermining justice contribute to increasing impunity for corruption and, in some cases, even encourage it by removing consequences for wrongdoers.

François Valérian, chair of Transparency International, said, "Corruption will continue to thrive until justice systems can punish wrongdoing and keep governments in check. When justice is bought or politically interfered with, it is the people who suffer. Leaders should fully invest in and guarantee the independence of institutions that uphold the law and tackle corruption. It is time to end impunity for corruption."