Sierra Leone drops seven places – 2017 Transparency Report

On Thursday 21 February 2018, the Transparency International 2017 Report was out and Sierra Leone was ranked 130 out of 180 countries, dropping seven places down from the 2016 report. In the 2016 Report Sierra Leone scored 30% in 2016 corruption perception index. The country was ranked 130 in 2018 and 123 in 2016. In 2007, Sierra Leone ranked 150 out of 179 countries surveyed.

The index published few days ago put together by Transparency International ranks countries annually as determined by expert assessments and opinion survey.

This year corruption perception index highlights that the majority of countries are making little or no progress in ending corruption, while further analysis show that journalist and activists in their corrupt countries risking their lives every day in an effort to speak out.

The Index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and business people, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very corrupt. This year, the index found that more than more two–thirds of the countries scores below 50, with an average score of 43.

In a summary of the chapter about Sierra Leone, (Transparency International SL) the country continues to face major challenges of weak governance, widespread poverty and systematic corruption, which have undermined the sustainable development and long-term reconstruction efforts.

According to the Report, corruption continues to permeate almost every sector in Sierra Leone public life, compromising citizen access to basic public services and institutions such as health and the police.
In 2014 and 2015, the country was ranked 119, in the index, but some of the government officials by then had to challenged the survey noting that it was not a representation of the people views.

The report stated that management of Sierra Leones abundant natural resources including illegal diamond mining; act as barrier to sustainable economic growth. Drug trafficking and money laundering are also on the increase, with the country being as a trans-shipment point from South America to Europe.
The report also noted that corruptions in the judiciary and law enforcement are of particular concern, as they compromise the state capacity to contain these emerging threats. According to the report that Anti Corruption Commission lack resources, staff and expertise to effectively prevent and combat corruption has been questioned on many occasion.

This year the New Zealand and Denmark rank highest with scores of 89 and 88 respectively. Syria, South Sudan and Somalia rank lowest with scores of 14, 12 and 9 respectively. The best performing region is Western Europe with an average score of 66. The worst performing regions are Sub Saharan Africa (average score 32) Eastern and Central Asia (average score of 34).