Tanzania falls on corruption index

Vanishing act: Photo: Daniel Hayduk

Tanzania has fallen for the fourth consecutive year on a global corruption index, but still hangs on to the number two spot in East Africa.  Photo: Daniel Hayduk

Tanzania has fallen — for the fourth consecutive year — on a global corruption index, however it’s still the second-least corrupt country in East Africa.

The Transparency International Corruption Perception Index says in 2015 Tanzania’s public sector scored 30, putting it in 117th place out of the 168 countries covered.

Since 2012, Tanzania has dropped down five points.

In East Africa, Rwanda is crowned least corrupt, while Uganda, Kenya and Burundi all continue to rank more corrupt than Tanzania.

Newly elected President John Magufuli has promised to end corruption and wasteful spending.

“From Ebola to terrorism, we’ve seen corruption exacerbate crises during 2015 in Sub-Saharan Africa,” says Chantal Uwimana, Director for Sub-Saharan Africa for Transparency International.

“Forty out of the region’s 46 countries show a serious corruption problem and there’s no improvement for continent powerhouses Nigeria and South Africa. If corruption and impunity are to ‘be a thing of the past’ as the African Union stated, governments need to take bold steps to ensure rule of law is the reality for everyone.”

Denmark took the top spot for the second year running, with North Korea and Somalia the worst performers, scoring just eight points each.

Top performers share key characteristics: high levels of press freedom; access to budget information so the public knows where money comes from and how it is spent; high levels of integrity among people in power; and judiciaries that don’t differentiate between rich and poor, and that are truly independent from other parts of government.

In addition to conflict and war, poor governance, weak public institutions like police and the judiciary, and a lack of independence in the media characterize the lowest ranked countries.

Explore the corruption map:

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