South Africa’s score on this year’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) has slipped from five to 4,8, Transparency South Africa (T-SA) said on Wednesday.
It said this could be attributed to the perception that corruption was not being adequately addressed in the country, as evidenced by the furore around the arms deal.
Furthermore, local media and non-governmental organisations had played a critical role in raising public consciousness of corruption in South Africa.
Transparency International (TI) released the index on Wednesday.
T-SA said in a statement it was particularly concerned that there was a growing perception that South African businesses were bribing officials in the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
”Unfortunately, neither the CPI nor the BPI (Bribe Payers’ Index) apply themselves to regional surveys and analyses… Transparency South Africa would welcome this as a possible further development in Transparency International’s methodology,” it said.
This would give added impetus to the role TI chapters in the Southern African region can play in monitoring the implementation of the SADC Protocol on Corruption.
”Indeed, it is a matter of urgency that all SADC countries adopt the protocol, which will ensure that anti-corruption measures are matters not only of national but also of regional concern.”
The BPI was released earlier this year.
T-SA said it was also concerned about potential corruption in relation to the newly formed African Union as well as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad).
T-SA’s primary focus would be on Nepad’s vulnerability to corruption. In November T-SA will host a conference of African chapters of TI to address this issue. Corruption tended to find the gap between policy and implementation, it said.
”Payers of bribes based in the wealthier nations of the North would naturally find the gaps in Nepad, and that is why it is vital that governments in the African Union take seriously the findings of the 2002 CPI and make every effort to clamp down on the corruption of public officials.”
T-SA reiterated Berlin-based TI chairman Peter Eigen’s call for the World Summit for Sustainable Development to lead to action.
”T-SA urges world leaders and delegates at the WSSD to take seriously the challenges of the CPI and to work towards the drastic reduction of corruption in the interests of sustainable development.” – Sapa