Papua New Guinea has maintained its place as a highly corrupt country on the 2022 Corruption Perceptions Report, this time dropping one point down to a low 30 out of 180 countries.
Apart from this one-point drop, PNG also ranks 13 points lower than the global average of 43 and 15 points lower in the Asia Pacific regional average.
Meanwhile, other smaller Pacific island countries are ranked much higher with Fiji ranked 53, Vanuatu ranked 48 and Solomon Islands ranked 42.
Despite a significant improvement in the 2021 report jumping up four points, this year’s drop is a disappointment where the 2022 national elections did play a significant part.
Transparency International PNG chairman, Peter Aitsi said: “I think the elections may be a major cause because as TIPNG has put forward in our elections report our elections in 2022 had a lot of concerns and a lot of irregularities.
“As a result that may be an influence on some of the scoring as well.
“Political leaders must recognise the dire threat that corruption poses to national and international peace and security.”
In light of this CPI ranking, TIPNG has made recommendations for the PNG government, and they include:
– Strengthen and secure the independent watchdog agencies;
– Improve access to public information;
– Limit private influence by regulating lobbying;
– Promoting open access to decision making; and
– Combat transnational forms of corruption.
Since 2012 PNG has had a stagnant fight with corruption ranking between 25 to 29 until in 2021 PNG jumped up four points to rank 31 only to drop in this year’s ranking. The CPI is a survey that measures perception and draws on different surveys that have been conducted on the way public offices respond to issues of corruption and several other areas.