Ghana scored 43 out of a possible clean score of 100, ranking 75 out of 180 countries across the world.
The West African country had scored 41 last year, raising concerns about the incidence of the canker in the country.
“Ghana’s score also exceeds the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) average score of 32 and is equal to the global average score of 43,” the local chapter of Transparency International announced.
Ghana is 10th in sub-Saharan Africa, which had Seychelles ranking highest with 66 points followed by Botswana with 60 points. Cape Verde, Rwanda and Mauritius follow in that order as the sub-regions Top 5.
Ghana performed better than 39 other SSA countries including Benin, Lesotho, Burkina Faso and Ethiopia.
Global outlook
The 2020 CPI focused on the relationship between corruption and emergency responses.
According to Transparency International, the 2020 CPI revealed that persistent corruption is undermining healthcare systems and contributing to democratic backsliding amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
It noted that countries that performed well on the index invest more in healthcare and are better able to provide universal health coverage and are less likely to violate democratic norms and institutions or the rule of law.
Denmark and New Zealand topped with 88 points with Syria, Somalia and South Sudan 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 SSA is the lowest scoring region.
Covid-19 counts for Ghana
Measures taken by the government at managing the coronavirus pandemic and its related impact contributed to the gains made by Ghana despite accountability being an outstanding issue.
GII, therefore, recommends that oversight institutions be strengthened to ensure resources reach those most in need, procurement rules to all contracts enforced, access to information guaranteed, and speeding up digitisation of the economy, among others, to get Ghana to perform better.
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana