THE National Integrity Action (NIA) yesterday blamed Government’s lack of action and failure to pass the promised anti-corruption legislation for the country’s failure to improve its rating on Transparency International’s (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

TI placed Jamaica again at number 83 of the 175 ranked in the 2013 survey, with number one being the least corrupt and 175 the most corrupt.

Jamaica shared the 83rd spot with its fellow Caribbean Community (Caricom) state Trinidad and Tobago, as well as Liberia, El Salvador, Burkina Faso, Mongolia, Peru, and Zambia. Jamaica and the other countries ranked at 83 recorded a score of 38. The CPI ranks countries on a scale of zero – 100, where zero represents highly corrupt and 100 very clean.

Barbados received the best ranking within Caricom, placing at number 15, while The Bahamas and St Lucia shared the number 22 spot with Chile and France. St Vincent and the Grenadines was ranked number 33 and Dominica 41.

Denmark was ranked as the least corrupt, followed by New Zealand, number two. Finland and Sweden were jointly ranked at number three, and Norway and France completed the top five countries rated as the least corrupt.

The most corrupt, according to the TI index, were North Korea, Somalia and Afghanistan, who shared the bottom 175 position. Jamaica’s neighbour, Haiti, came in at 163.

Canada was ranked at number nine, the United Kingdom 14, Japan 18, and the United States 19.

Yesterday, the NIA expressed concerned about Jamaica’s ranking on the CPI released by Transparency International.

“[The] CPI 2013 confirms our Jamaican people’s view of the corruption level in Jamaica, as underscored by the Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) 2013. The fact is that it’s unlikely Jamaica will make any progress until we convert words into deeds in relation to the combat of corruption. In particular, until the Government implements its repeated commitment to legislate campaign finance reforms; establishes a single anti-corruption agency with prosecutorial powers, and significantly strengthens penalties attached to breaches of the procurement system. These actions would represent a definitive step towards challenging the impunity of those involved in high level corruption that is today so rampant,” said the NIA.

It added: “In this context, the repeated postponement of the necessary legislation, the reinstatement of junior minister in the Ministry of Transport, Works and Housing Richard Azan, and proposals to weaken the powers of the Office of the Contractor General shall ensure that Jamaicans feel that the Government is not doing enough to combat corruption, a view echoed in survey after survey.”

At the same time, Transparency International said that its 2013 CPI offers a warning that the abuse of power, secret dealings and bribery continue to ravage societies around the world.

“More than two thirds of the 177 countries in the 2013 index scored below 50, on a scale from zero (perceived to be highly corrupt) to 100 (perceived to be very clean). This demonstrates that all countries still face the threat of corruption at all levels of government, from the issuing of local permits to the enforcement of laws and regulations,” said Huguette Labelle, chair of Transparency International.

“The top performers clearly reveal how transparency supports accountability and can stop corruption,” said Labelle. “Still, the better performers face issues like State capture, campaign finance and the oversight of big public contracts which remain major corruption risks,” he said.

The CPI is based on experts’ opinions of public sector corruption. Countries’ scores can be helped by strong access to information systems and rules governing the behaviour of those in public positions, while a lack of accountability across the public sector coupled with ineffective public institutions hurts these perceptions.