Sudan still among the lowest on Corruption Index

Three of the bottom 10 countries in this year’s Transparency International (TI) Corruption Index are from the Middle East: Iraq, Libya, and Sudan.

The ongoing devastating conflicts in these and other countries, such as Syria and Yemen, inevitably mean that any efforts to strengthen institutions and the state have taken a back seat, TI states in its 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index released on Wednesday.

Security will only succeed long term if governments make a genuine break with cronyism and build trust with citizens, the TI writes. This will require a huge change in political will.

The Corruption Perceptions Index measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption.

The scale of the issue is huge, TI says. Sixty-eight per cent of countries worldwide have a serious corruption problem. Half of the G20 are among them. Not one single country, anywhere in the world, is corruption-free.

Sudan again ranks extremely low on the Index, ending at 165 in a list of 168 countries; down from declined from 11 in 2014 to 12 in 2015, staying ahead only of Afghanistan, North Korea and Somalia. South Sudan scored slightly better than Sudan.

Denmark is worldwide the least corrupt country in 2015, with 91 out of the possible 100 points. With 71 points, Qatar scored the highest of all Middle-Eastern countries.

As many states feel confronted by existential threats, such as Islamic State, El Qaeda, and other terrorist organisations, it is more important than ever to make combating corruption a top priority, according to TI.

Reduced civil liberties cannot be a casualty in any war against terrorism, the Index states. As corruption is included in the new Sustainable Development Goals, enlightened decision-makers are starting to realise that development and anti-corruption must be interlinked, citizens urgently need their governments to move beyond conceptualisation to actually taking long-term action.

Civil society must have the space to be a serious partner in the fight against corruption, as governments have demonstrated that they cannot do this alone.