The 2018 Transparency International (TI) report seen by APA on Tuesday stated that in the global index, on the African continent, between the countries of southern Africa, as well as in the Portuguese-speaking countries, Mozambique has registered falls in the index on corruption.
“The decline is for the third consecutive year, with the Public Integrity Center associating the slippage in the rankings with so-called “hidden debts.”
Since 2016, the year in which the public debt scandal erupted, the country has been experiencing steep declines.
“At the moment, Mozambique fell four positions, occupying 161th place in a total of 183 countries”, read the TI report.
Among Southern African Development Community (SADC) states, Mozambique also saw a drop in 2018, when compared to the previous year’s assessment, when it dropped from 10th to 11th, shifting its position with Madagascar.
Among the Portuguese-speaking countries, Mozambique maintained the same position as in 2017.
In all 51 African countries surveyed, the country has moved to the thirty-ninth place, minus two positions than in 2017, below Madagascar and above Zimbabwe.
Against this background, the CIP advocates a deep reflection on the actions that the government has taken in the fight against corruption.
“It is necessary to assess the seriousness of these measures and the impact they may be reaching. Finally, according to the numbers observed, during the last three years of evaluation, there is a total failure between political discourse and concrete measures aimed at reducing corruption and its effects on Mozambican society, “said TI.
In the global ranking, Denmark appears as the best positioned and Somalia is the worst country in terms of corruption.
Until a few years ago, Mozambique was touted as one of sub-Saharan Africa’s leading success stories, with consistently high year-on-year GDP growth.
In 2016, however, the country was hit by a “perfect storm” of unfavourable fluctuations in exchange rates, runaway inflation and a growing inability to service its debt burden.
Observers believe Mozambique would have been able to ride this out, had it not been compounded by a scandal in which senior officials secretly provided government guarantees on several billion dollars’ worth of loans.