Transparency International releases its global 2019 CPI today

ISLAMABAD: Transparency International head office in Berlin will today (Thursday) issue its global report on the 2019 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), which in the case of Pakistan will determine whether corruption in the country under the PTI government has decreased or increased during the last year.

The Transparency International’s annual report on CPI is formulated on the basis of input from 13 international agencies but in case of Pakistan assessment of eight agencies matter which include World Economic Forum Executive Opinion Survey; World Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment; World Justice Project Rule of Law Index; Bertelsmann Stiftung Transformation Index; Economist Intelligence Unit Country Risk Service; Global Insight Country Risk Ratings; IMD World Competitiveness Center World Competitiveness Yearbook Executive Opinion Survey; and Varieties of Democracy.

While the government claims that it has taken effective measures to check corruption and the NAB also takes credit for doing wonders in curbing the menace, some experts do fear bad news for Pakistan. These experts refer to the reports of some international organisations, which in recent months had assessed negatively in the area of corruption. Two of the eight international organisations, which contribute to the assessment of Transparency International’s annual global report on corruption, in their 2019 report have already assessed Pakistan as more corrupt than 2018.

These reports, which were made public and also reported by this correspondent, had raised many eyebrows here amid fears that it may lead to Pakistan losing its position in the 2019 annual Transparency’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) report, being released today. The News on Oct 13, 2019 published a story- “Is Pakistan more corrupt than before?”- in which an expert on corruption was quoted as saying that the World Economic Forum’s report, released in Oct 2019, about the rise in corruption in Pakistan would be considered by Transparency International while assessing Pakistan’s efforts to check corruption in its next CPI report.

On the corruption index of the World Economic Forum’s recent report, the ranking of Pakistan slipped from 99 to 101. Before the World Economic Forum’s assessment, the World Justice Project in its “Rule of Law Index 2019 Insights”, had assessed Pakistan to have lost by one position in 2019 as against 2018. The Rule of Law Index is also considered by Transparency International in the formation of its annual report about different countries.

The News had then reported, “The source said that two of these eight organisations in their surveys have already reduced Pakistan scores, which indicates that corruption in Pakistan has increased.” In its last report of Transparency International, Pakistan was assessed to have made a slight improvement in the Corruption Perception Index 2018 with a score of 33 out of 100 - one point better than the one in 2017. The country’s ranking in the 2018 report was 117th out of 180 countries as was in 2017.

The Transparency International’s 2019 report will determine whether Pakistan has improved, maintained the last position or have lost ground against corruption. Curbing corruption has been the main slogan as well as the commitment of the PTI not only before the 2018 election but also after it came into power. In case, the TI 2019 report improves Pakistan’s point from the last 33 and its ranking from the last 117th position than the PTI government will be praised for its efforts. However, in case the TI 2019 drops Pakistan’s position in terms of points and ranking, it would serve a serious blow to the PTI government.

According to Transparency International’s past data, Pakistan in the last 10 years (since 2010) has improved its points from 23 in 2010 to 33 in 2018. In 2016 and 2017 Pakistan maintained the same score - 32, which in 2018 increased to 33. However, never in these last ten years, Pakistan was assessed to have performed negatively as compared to the previous year’s CPI point score. It means that Pakistan kept gaining the score since 2010.