Botswana remained the second least corrupt African country for the second year running in 2020 after Seychelles, according to the latest corruption perception report published by Transparent International on Thursday.
The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2020 placed Seychelles at the apex of the Top 10 least corrupt African countries, followed by Botswana, Cape Verde, Rwanda, Mauritius, Namibia, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, South Africa and Tunisia.
Seychelles was ranked at position 27 out of 180 countries sampled while Botswana placed at number 35, according to the index.
The report, however, showed that Botswana, Namibia and Senegal slipped one place each from their 2019 global rankings when the placed 34th, 56th and 66th, respectively.
Somalia and South Sudan anchored the list as the most corrupt countries in the world, according to the report.
The CPI draws its analysis on an assessment of experts and business executives on a number of corrupt behaviours in the public sector, including bribery, diversion of public funds, use of public office for private gain, nepotism in the civil service and state capture, as well as the government’s ability to enforce integrity mechanisms, the effective prosecution of corrupt officials, and red tape and excessive bureaucratic burden.
The report noted that the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted structural gaps in national health care systems, corruption risks associated with public procurement and the misappropriation of emergency funds.
This exposed shortcomings in countries such as South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe where there was widespread misuse of emergency funds.
In South Africa, an audit of COVID-19 expenditures revealed overpricing, fraud and corruption.
JN/APA