Corruption Perceptions continue to improve for EITI implementing countries

On 27 January Transparency International issued the CPI which scores and ranks the perceptions of corruption in 168 countries in 2015. Although more countries improved their scores in the 2015 Corruption Perceptions Index than declined, still nearly two-thirds of the countries face high level of corruption and have been scored below 50 out of 100 (100 for the least corrupt, 0 for the highest corruption level).

The positive trend in the previous CPI is continued in 2015 among the EITI countries: on average, EITI countries had score improvement 0.05 more than other countries. That also led to extra 2.5 positions growth in ranking compared to countries outside EITI. A significant decline of 4 points is observed for Guatemala that faced a few corruption scandals in 2015. Albania, Indonesia, Mali, Togo, Tajikistan, Honduras, UK, and US all made positive strides.

Performance of EITI countries compared to the previous year:

Of course, the positive link between EITI membership and improved CPI scores is at best tenuous. Better performance of EITI countries in the report may stem from the fact that EITI members are preceived to be countries that care about fighting corruption.

We all hope that billions of people will benefit from further progress in fighting corrupton and improving transparency in 2016.