Maldives witnessed a significant victory on the Corruption Perception Index for 2020 by Transparency International.

The index (CPI) is an index published annually by Transparency International since 1995 which ranks countries by their perceived levels of public sector corruption. Maldives gained 14 points on the index, and ranked at 75 for the year.

Maldives ranked at 75 in 2020 with a total of 43 points while in 2019 the country was at 130 with 29 points.

The 2020 Index was established by expert assessments and opinion surveys. This year, the index covered 183 countries and territories across the world to provide a detailed summary of the corruption situation around the world. Scores are on a scale of 0-100, in which 0 means that a country is regarded to be extremely corrupt.

According to Transparency Maldives, 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.

They further added that as the Maldives seeks to move towards adapting to the new normal and embark on recovering from the pandemic, it is imperative to look back on how the Maldives as a country is responding

to the pandemic. An important takeaway from this year’s CPI is that while corruption differs in scale and scope across regions, it proved to be a universal obstacle to effectively combating the pandemic. COVID-19 is not just a health and economic crisis, but a corruption crisis too.

Transparency Maldives also echoed the call by Transparency International and recommended the Maldivian government to strengthen oversight institutions to ensure resources reach those most in need, ensure open and transparent contracting to combat wrongdoing, identify conflicts of interest and ensure fair pricing, defend democracy and promote civic space to create enabling conditions for holding government accountable, publish relevant data and guarantee access to information to ensure the public receives easy, accessible, timely and meaningful information, including on public spending and resource distribution, which are particularly relevant in emergency situations.