Engineering News reports that, despite its score advancing a notch in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), from 43 to 44, South Africa still ranks among countries that are deemed to have a serious corruption problem.  

The 2019 CPI report, a leading global indicator of public sector corruption, was released on Thursday by global civil society organisation Transparency International.  The 180 countries and territories involved are ranked by experts and business on their perceived levels of corruption in the public sector.  The scale used is zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.  Corruption Watch executive director David Lewis said this year’s report highlighted the importance of the relationship between money, political power and corruption.  He noted that a lack of political will to enforce important legislation to regulate political funding created the perception that the country was not doing enough because although SA’s parliament had passed the Political Party Funding Act in January, president Cyril Ramaphosa had yet to bring the Act into operation.  In addition, the South African public made it clear that until there was visible progress in prosecuting those responsible for corruption and until there was visible improvement in the ability of State-owned enterprises to deliver their vital services, government’s promises to combat corruption would not be trusted.

Read the full original of the report in the above regard at Engineering News

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