The Corruption Perceptions Index 2020 Is Out Today! Where Does Maldives Stand This Time?

Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. It can happen anywhere and in any form which could involve anyone. Corruption erodes trust, weakens democracy, hampers economic development and further exacerbates inequality, poverty, social division and the environmental crisis.

Transparency International is a global movement working in over 100 countries to end the injustice of corruption and promote transparency, accountability and integrity at all levels and across all sectors of society. In line with this mission, they annually create a ‘Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)’: the most widely used indicator of corruption worldwide.

The CPI scores and ranks countries/territories based on how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be by experts and business executives. It is a composite index, a combination of 13 surveys and assessments of corruption, collected by a variety of reputable institutions. The index uses at least three sources per country when calculating the score and a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

For 2020, the Maldives ranks at 75 out of 180 countries with a score of 43. In comparison to 2019, the island nation has climbed 14 points in the score and 55 positions in country ranking. The Maldives’ 2020 score was drawn from three international sources: Global Insight Country Risk Ratings, Varieties of Democracy Project, and World Bank CPIA. The data for all three sources were collected in the period January 2019 to January 2020

While the upward trajectory in the CPI index is a positive step, Maldives still remains among the two-thirds of countries to score below 50. Despite the progress Maldives has made in the recent past especially in the area of strengthening the legal framework the data shows that Maldives is still falling behind when it comes to effectively tackling corruption.