Dominican Republic is for the second time in a row to the countries with more corruption according to the Corruption Perception Index of the organization Transparency International.
The index report announced by Participación Ciudadana on Thursday highlights the The Dominican nation held the same score on the previous year’s perception of corruption in 2020 with 28 points more than 100 then, occupied the 137th out of 180 countries Attendees.
Citizen Participation General Coordinator Sonia Díaz noted that the country was not meeting the 51 points it had set as a 2020 target.
Díaz added that the index highlights that most countries have made little or no progress in the fight against corruption and that many of them scored less than 50% twice in a row.
Transparency international rankings
The highest scores on the corruption index are in line with Denmark and New Zealand with 88 basis points each, followed by Finland, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland with 85 points each, Díaz reported at a press conference.
In the American region, the best indices are for Canada with 77 points, Uruguay with 71 and Chile and the United States with 67 points each.
The worst scoring countries on the continent That’s Venezuela at 15, Haiti at 18, Nicaragua at 22, Honduras at 24, Guatemala at 25, and Paraguay and the Dominican Republic at 28.
Díaz said that in the case of the Dominican Republic, the highest score the country has achieved since the start of the measurement was 25 points in 2012, while the lowest score was 28 in three years: 2009, 2019 and 2020.
The report recommends that in fighting COVID-19, it is critical that countries strengthen oversight so that resources reach those who need it most.
“The report suggests that the anti-corruption agencies and the oversight commission should have sufficient resources and independence to fulfill their mission and that open and transparent processes should be ensured to combat irregularities and ensure fair prices,” warned the head of Participación Ciudadana.
COVID and corruption
Díaz pointed out that the results of the Corruption Perception Index place special emphasis on the corruption related to the health crisis produced by COVID-19.
He stated that even in the countries with the highest scores, there have been complaints such as a lack of transparency in government spending to deal with the coronavirus, which is a health crisis, but it has also been a corruption crisis.
The report states that the fight against corruption during the pandemic has spread around the world over the past year.