Dominican Republic’s dismal corruption rank continues

Santo Domingo.- The Dominican Republic maintained in 2020 the same Corruption Perception Index of the previous year, 28 points out of 100, occupying the 137th place in the ranking of 180 participating countries.

The civic movement and Dominican chapter of Transparency International, Participación Ciudadana, on Thur. released the results of the Corruption Perception Index 2020, which places special emphasis on corruption related to the COVID-19 crisis.

The Corruption Perception Index 2020 reveals that in most countries progress in the fight against corruption has seen little or no progress in almost a decade and more than two-thirds scored below 50 out of 100.

Transparency International establishes that, even in the countries with the highest scores, there have been reports of corruption such as the lack of transparency in public spending to deal with COVID-19.

“COVID-19 is not only a health and economic crisis: it is also a corruption crisis. In the last year, reports of corruption during the pandemic have spread throughout the world,” the study states.

The highest scores in the index are for Denmark and New Zealand, with 88 points each, followed by Finland, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland, with 85 points each.

In the Americas region, the best indices are those of Canada (77 points); Uruguay (71); Chile (67); United States (67), while the worst scores on the continent are Venezuela (15 points); Haiti (18); Nicaragua (22); Honduras (24); Guatemala (25); Paraguay and the Dominican Republic (28).