Tonga improves ranking on Transparency InternationaI CPI [1]
Tuesday, September 23, 2008 - 21:37. Updated on Thursday, September 11, 2014 - 15:36.
Tonga has been ranked No. 138 in the 2008 Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index CPI that was released in Berlin, Germany this morning.
In this year's Transparency International's CPI Tonga has moved up from No. 178 in 2007 to 138 this year.
The improvement on the CPI for Tonga, according to a statement from TI was due to a number of sincere initiatives by the Tongan government to curb corruption, including "the introduction of an anti-corruption law and the establishment of an anti-corruption commission this year also helped to improve the perception of anti-corruption in the country."
The TI CPI measures the perceived levels of public-sector corruption in a given country and is a composite index, drawing on different expert and business surveys.
The main sources of information for the TI CPI 2008 were the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, African Development Bank and the Bertelsmann Foundation of Germany.
The 2008 CPI scores 180 countries, on a scale from zero, highly corrupt to ten, highly clean.
Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden share the highest score at 9.3, followed by Singapore at 9.2. At the rear are Somalia at 1.0, Iraq and Myanmar at 1.3 and Haiti at 1.4.
Significant declines can be seen in the scores of Bulgaria, Burundi, Maldives, Norway and the United Kingdom.
Tonga improved
Significant improvements over the last year can be identified in Albania, Cyprus, Georgia, Mauritius, Nigeria, Oman, Qatar, South Korea, Tonga and Turkey.
"In the poorest countries, corruption levels can mean the difference between life and death, when money for hospitals or clean water is in play," said Huguette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International. "The continuing high levels of corruption and poverty plaguing many of the world's societies amount to an ongoing humanitarian disaster and cannot be tolerated. But even in more privileged countries, with enforcement disturbingly uneven, a tougher approach to tackling corruption is needed."
"Stemming corruption requires strong oversight through parliaments, law enforcement, independent media and a vibrant civil society," said Labelle. "When these institutions are weak, corruption spirals out of control with horrendous consequences for ordinary people, and for justice and equality in societies more broadly."
Rampant corruption
In low-income countries, rampant corruption jeopardises the global fight against poverty, threatening to derail the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). According to TI's 2008 Global Corruption Report, unchecked levels of corruption would add US $50 billion (Euro 35 billion) - or nearly half of annual global aid outlays - to the cost of achieving the MDG on water and sanitation.
Not only does this call for a redoubling of efforts in low-income countries, where the welfare of significant portions of the population hangs in the balance, it also calls for a more focussed and coordinated approach by the global donor community to ensure development assistance is designed to strengthen institutions of governance and oversight in recipient countries, and that aid flows themselves are fortified against abuse and graft.
This is the message that TI will be sending to the member states of the UN General Assembly as they prepare to take stock on progress in reaching the MDGs on 25 September, and ahead of the UN conference on Financing for Development, in Doha, Qatar, where commitments on funding aid will be taken.