FIJI NOT INCLUDED IN GLOBAL CORRUPTION PERCEPTION INDEX, YET AGAIN
THE CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX (CPI) IS THE LEADING GLOBAL INDICATOR OF PUBLIC SECTOR CORRUPTION. We only need to be captured by three of them to be automatically included in the CPI as inclusion is not controlled by Transparency International.
Fiji was not included in the Global Corruption Perception Index 2019 that was released on January 23rd 2020. The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is the leading global indicator of public sector corruption. It provides an annual snapshot of the relative degree of corruption. The index for 2019 scores 180 countries and territories drawing on 13 expert assessments and surveys of businesspeople.
Questions were posed to Transparency International, the NGO responsible for producing the global index.
From Berlin, Alejandro Salas, the Asia Pacific Coordinator said: “Unfortunately, as much as we would like to have Fiji as part of the countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), it is not included because of a technicality with the methodology.”
He said the CPI is a compilation of various international surveys developed by prestigious institutions like the World Bank, the Economist, and the World Economic Forum to name a few.
“In order to include a country into the CPI, there is a need to have a minimum of 3 sources (surveys) then we can include that country. However, Fiji only featured in 2 of them and not in the required minimum of 3. This is the only reason why Fiji as well as other countries do not appear.”
Fiji was included in the Corruption Perception Index in 2005 and since then we have not been included. Although Transparency International releases the CPI on an annual basis, the list of countries that they feature is predicated on a minimum of 3 international data sources.
Joseph Veramu, Executive Director of Civic Leaders for Clean Transactions Integrity Fiji (CLCT) Integrity explained: “The CPI is a composite index and not only one survey, thus the strict methodological criteria that there needs to be at least 3 sources for any given country to be included.
“The countries are only included if those surveys that Transparency International bases its index on (the World Bank, World Economic Forum, the Economist, and many others) include Fiji, otherwise Transparency International doesn’t have the data to include a country.”
Thus, the inclusion of a country is not Transparency International’s choice, it is determined by the countries surveyed by those institutions.
“Given that Fiji is an important economy in the Pacific region and the regional World Bank Office is now based in Suva, it is hoped that the required data sources will be generated and Fiji will in the very near future be included in the CPI,” Mr Veramu said.
This year, CLCT Integrity Fiji with support from Transparency International New Zealand will track each of the sources of the CPI, to see why Fiji was not included and whether they could put a case to the individual survey generators to include Fiji.
“We only need to be captured by three of them to be automatically included in the CPI as inclusion is not controlled by Transparency International,” Mr Veramu said.
For the Asia Pacific region, the CPI 2019 noted that “the region hasn’t witnessed substantial progress in anticorruption efforts or results. Even in democracies, such as Australia and India, unfair and opaque political financing and undue influence in decision-making and lobbying by powerful corporate interest groups, result in stagnation or decline in control of corruption.”
Vanuatu and the Solomons were included in the 2019 CPI.
Solomons dropped from 44 points in 2018 to 42.
In the 2005 Corruption Perceptions Index report, Fiji scored 40 points out of 100.
Fiji is an important economy in the Pacific region and the regional World Bank Office is now based in Suva, it is hoped that the required data sources will be generated and Fiji will in the very near future be included in the CPI.