Slippage In Corruption Perception: Should Sri Lankans Take Note Of It?
Dr. W.A. Wijewardena
Sri Lanka’s Public Sector Corruption Perception has changed for the worse
Berlin based international civil society organisation, Transparency International, has been putting out, since 1995, a global index placing world’s nations on a public sector corruption perception map based on surveys conducted in each of the countries under examination. In this index, the cleanest country can score 100 and the most corrupt 0. In the 2013 Corruption Perception Index just released, Sri Lanka’s total score has slipped from 40 in 2012 to 37 in 2013 (available here ). At this score level, Sri Lanka is ranked equivalent, by corruption perception, to Malawi and Morocco which too have scored the same value. Out of 177 countries that have been surveyed, Sri Lanka is ranked at 91 in 2013, a slippage from 79 out of 176 countries in 2012. There is a gradual deterioration of the country’s position of corruption perception from 2005 in which year it had been ranked at 78 out of 159 countries. A consolation for many patriotic-minded Sri Lankans would be that it has scored a little higher than its neighbour to the North, India, which has scored 36 and there are 80 countries which are more corrupt than Sri Lanka in the globe.
No complacency about the present corruption perception level
But over the years, Sri Lanka’s public sector has been perceived to have become more corrupt both in relative and absolute terms. In 2012, the country was ranked nine slots above the midpoint. In 2013, it has slipped three slots below the midpoint. Naturally, this is a development about which the country cannot be happy at all.
Index is on perception and not on actual incidence of corruption
One clarification of the index is that it is about the perception of corruption and not about the absolute level of corruption. This is because there is no valid and reliable information on an internationally comparable basis on the incidence of the public sector corruption. Hence, one may argue that it is the actual level of corruption about which a country should be worried and not about the perception of corruption. That is because perceptions are based on the subjective assessment of the people and the organisations that are surveyed for the purpose. A critic might say that such surveys would not reveal the objective and impartial opinion of the personalities being surveyed. Their perceptions may have been largely influenced by media reports, hearsay and gossips about the instances of corruption rather than personal experience of same. To that extent, the perception indexes will overestimate the actual level of corruption in society. Or on the other hand, they may underestimate the corruption levels if perceptions are guided by suppressed information on same.
