Still At Its Worst? Malta Retains Its Lowest-Ever Score On Annual Corruption Perception Index
Malta’s lowest-ever score on Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index has remained unchanged from last year, with the islands retaining their less-than-ideal 51 out of 100 score.
Considered the most widely used global corruption ranking in the world, the CPI rates countries out of 100, with 100 being the cleanest, and 0 signifying high levels of corruption.Malta’s score peaked in 2015 at 60 points, but has been in a constant dive ever since.
This time last year, the islands registered a historic low… and it doesn’t seem like enough has changed in the last 365 days for that ranking to budge.
The CPI looks at various types of corruption, from bribery, diversion of public funds, and excessive red tape in the public sector, to access to information on government activities and public affairs.
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“Over two-thirds of countries scored below 50 out of 100, which strongly indicates that they have serious corruption problems,” the CPI wrote for its 2023 report. “The global average is stuck at only 43, while the vast majority of countries have made no progress or declined in the last decade. What is more, 23 countries fell to their lowest scores to date this year.”
This means Malta is just slightly above the global average, sitting marginally better than Malaysia, Namibia and Greece (which has now dropped to 49) but falling short of places like Saudi Arabia, Rwanda and Georgia.
As for the Western Europe and EU, the average score has slipped to 65 out of 100… putting Malta well off the mark in that regard. And this was this still the case considering that, among the 31 European countries evaluated, only six have managed to enhance their scores since 2012, while eight experienced a decline.
“It’s time to end impunity for corruption,” the CPI continued, saying “the global trend of weakening justice systems is reducing accountability for public officials, which allows corruption to thrive.”
Do you agree with this year’s Corruption Perception Index score given to Malta?
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