The 2022 report from Transparency International, ranking the world’s states according to their perceived levels of corruption, has a few surprises. This latest index from TI lists Denmark as the least corrupt country in the world – but several states in Western Europe have scored markedly worse than before. In Sub-Saharan Africa, Seychelles once again tops the scoresheet for the region, while Somalia scores the lowest not just in the region, but in the world. However, Mauritius has lost 4 points on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index and has fallen to 57th place globally. The African continent has lost one place and is now fifth. Apart from its index, the report also discusses the role that factors such as conflict play in a country’s level of corruption.
For the fifth year in a row, the top slot in Sub-Saharan Africa has gone to Seychelles, giving it boasting rights as the least corrupt country in the continent. How has Seychelles done it? The island state has maintained its ranking or achieved higher scores each year, from a low of 36, to 2021 when it reached 70, a score duplicated in the current report.
Head of the Anti-Corruption Commission of Seychelles (ACCS), May de Silva, said that during the period covered by the report, Seychelles had made ‘more arrests for corruption-related offences, charged more suspects, and submitted more cases to the AG’s office for consideration of charges, than ever before.’ ‘With this increase in reporting and anti-corruption activity, we expected to be perceived as a more corrupt country than this time last year because we have lifted the stone.’
The CPI report 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. Seychelles stayed in 23rd place globally like in 2021 with a score of 70 points. The island state again outperformed major Western democracies like the United States, which did better than last year and climbed to 24th position with a score of 69 points.
Seychelles ACCS commissioner added that “we look forward to hosting the Commonwealth Africa Anti-Corruption Heads annual meeting in May this year. We in the ACCS are not, and will never be, complacent in the fight against corruption in Seychelles and we are focused on continuing to work to eradicate this crime to make our society fairer for all our citizens.”
Meanwhile, the ACCS currently has two cases before the Supreme Court of Seychelles, namely the ‘missing $50 million’ case, where foreign aid was removed from a government account in 2002, and the mismanagement of loans at the Seychelles Business Finance Agency (SBFA).
