The corruption perceptions index of Maldives shows that there is no improvement in the work being done against corruption.

The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2022 released today by Transparency International revealed that the Maldives, remains at the same position on the CPI rankings amongst the two-thirds of countries to score below 50.

The CPI annually scores and ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived level of public sector corruption, drawing on surveys and expert assessments. The index uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. The Maldives, with a score of 40, is ranked 85 out of 184 countries in the CPI 2022, mirroring the Maldives CPI ranking and score of 2021.

The Maldives’ 2022 score was drawn from the composite assessment of three international sources: Global Insight Country Risk Ratings, Varieties of Democracy Project, and World Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA).

Transparency Maldives stated that the data reflects the stagnation in implementing and enforcing the laws to tackle corruption.

They stated the following.

“As is true for the past years, Maldives has seen weak investigation, prosecution, enforcement, and implementation of laws resulting in increased lack of accountability of political and public officials.

Additionally, CPI scores in the middle of the index indicates more complex challenges such as grand corruption which includes the abuse of high-level power that benefits the few at the expense of the many. In such cases mere technical interventions, useful in addressing petty corruption, are not enough.

As the theme for CPI 2022 explains, corruption can undermine political, social and economic stability, and ultimately threaten peace, safety and security as a whole. Corruption also creates fertile ground for organized criminal activities and violent conflict, as criminals are aided in their illegal activities by the complicity of corrupt public officials. In order to work towards durable peace, we must overhaul a system that promotes corruption and protects the corrupt and ensure a culture of transparency and accountability.”

They also added that to reduce corruption and restore trust in politics, Transparency Maldives echoed the call by Transparency International and recommended that the Maldivian government:

• Ensure obligations under United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) are being met, strengthen preventive, monitoring, verification and enforcement mechanisms and proactively disclose information on the mechanisms implemented and progress made;

• Hold political and public officials accountable by passing the bill on Asset Declaration drafted by Transparency Maldives in line with best practices to ensure a comprehensive asset declaration regime & verification mechanism is in place to prevent illicit enrichment, ending abuse of state resources and vote buying;

• Ensure informed and meaningful participation of public in decisions-making, by guaranteeing access to information and publishing relevant, easy, accessible, timely data, on corruption, public spending and resource distribution;

• Strengthen capacity and resources of State Institutes to conduct full, transparent and timely investigation and prosecution. Anti-corruption authorities and oversight institutions must have sufficient funds, resources, and independence to perform their duties, free from intimidation and political influence; and

• Defend democracy and promote civic space by fully implementing laws, especially related to Human trafficking and Whistleblowing, thus, creating an enabling condition for human rights defenders to hold human rights abusers, including the government, accountable

With the preparation for the upcoming 2023 Presidential Elections in September Transparency Maldives have expressed concerns about the highly politicized efforts to address corruption that result in lowering public trust in accountability mechanisms and the judicial process.

“Efforts to address corruption must be timely, efficient and unbiased – and as such we reiterate our calls to the government to end the culture of impunity for the corrupt, ensure allegations of corruption is investigated and addressed in order to ensure political figures accused of corruption is held to account and not rewarded with more power and privilege.” Stated transparency Maldives.