Zambia Maintains Corruption Score But Drops On Global Rankings

An Anti-Corruption poster in Zambia

By Paul Shalala

Zambia has maintained its score of 38 points on the 2014 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) but dropped two places on the global rankings.

According to the CPI results released early this morning by Transparency International in the Germany capital Berlin, Zambia is now ranked 85th in the world out of a total of 174 countries surveyed this year.

The CPI has revealed that Zambia has dropped two places on the rankings from 83 last year to 85 this year despite having scored 38 points in both years.

At 85 in the world, Zambia is ranked alongside Burkina Faso, India, Sri Lanka and The Phillipines.

In Africa, Zambia has been ranked 12th.

Botswana is the highest ranked African country at number 31 despite it having dropped from 30 last year when it again outshinned other African countries on the global rankings.

Other better performing African countries on the 2014 Corruption Perception Index global rankings are Cape Verde (42th), Seychelles (43rd), Mauritius (47th), Lesotho (49th), Namibia (55th), Ghana (61st), South Africa (67th), Swaziland (69th), Sao Tome and Principe (76) and Benin (80th).

On the global stage, Scandinavian countries have dominated the top 5 least corrupt list.

Denmark has maintained its top ranking as the least corrupt country in the world at number 1, a rank it held even last year.

The Scandinavian country is followed closely by New Zealand at number 2 which jointly held number 1 last year with Denmark.

Finland is ranked 3rd, Sweden at 4th and Norway at 5th in the world.

In the worst corrupt list, lawless Somalia and the Stalinist North Korea have maintained their last position 174th  in the world just like last year.

Omar al-Bashir's Sudan is the least ranked African country on the global rankings at number 173 making it the second most corrupt country in Africa followed by its break-away neighbour South Sudan at 171st and Libya at 166th.

The Corruption Perception Index is based on thousands of interviews Transparency International conducts with citizens of specific countries worldwide on how they perceive corruption in their country's public sector.