Ghana has scored an average mark of 43 out of 100 on the 2020 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released by Transparency International.

This left the country being ranked 75 out of 180 nations captured in the 2020 index.

The CPI draws upon 13 data sources which capture the assessment of experts and business executives on a number of corrupt behaviours in the public sector.

It uses a scale of zero which represents highly corrupt to 100 which is very clean.

Ghana gained 2 points compared to its scores of 41 and 40 from the previous two years.

The index noted that, persistent corruption was undermining health care systems “and contributing to democratic backsliding amid the COVID-19 pandemic.”

It indicated that the countries performing well on the index invest more in health care and are better able to provide universal health coverage “and are less likely to violate democratic norms and institutions or the rule of law”.

In Ghana, of concern was the lack of accountability in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It suggested that Ghana strengthens oversight institutions, enforce procurement rules to all contracts, ensure open and transparent contracting to combat wrongdoing, publish relevant data and guarantee access to information to ensure the public receives easy, accessible, timely and meaningful information including and speed up the digitisation of the economy to facilitate more efficient and transparent delivery of key services in the pandemic period.

Ghana’s score exceeded the Sub-Saharan African average score of 32.

Its 43 score placed it 10th in sub-Saharan African.

Seychelles is ranked highest country in Sub-Saharan Africa with 66 points followed by Botswana with 60, Cabo Verde with 58, Rwanda with 54 and Mauritius scored 53 as the top five countries in SSA.

“Ghana also performed better than 39 other Sub-Saharan African countries including Benin, Lesotho, Burkina Faso, and Ethiopia, etc,” the Ghana Integrity Initiative noted in a statement.

Globally, Denmark and New Zealand topped with 88 points each whilst Syria, Somalia and South Sudan are at the bottom with 14, 12 and 12 points respectively.

The highest-scoring region is Western Europe and the European Union with an average score of 66, while the lowest scoring region is Sub-Saharan Africa with an average score of 32.

The TI 2020 CPI scores and ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption.