Malta has made very slight progress in this year’s Corruption Perception Index, gaining only one point over its 2020 score.

The CPI is published yearly by Transparency International. Malta received a score of 54 this year, edging up only one point over it’s 2020 score of 53.

The country’s score is well below the 66 average for Western Europe.

Globally, Denmark, Finland and New Zealand ranked first, with a score of 88, while South Sudan is last on the list, with 13 points.

In the Western Europe region, Bulgaria (42), Hungary (43) and Romania (45) remain the worst performers.

Transparency International said that, two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, and despite early warnings, Europe continues to use the crisis as an excuse for stagnating anti-corruption efforts and troubling decisions. Accountability and transparency measures are also being neglected or rolled back.

The reports cites Cyprus’ golden passports scandal, however, it makes no mention of Malta’s own citizenship scheme.

It also mentions the various public contracting and ‘sleaze’ scandals in the UK, Germany’s face masks procurement scandal implicating MPs and Slovenia’s decline in media integrity and freedom of peaceful assembly.

The long-term consequences of inadequate anti-corruption action are already evident in Hungary and Poland.

Transparency International noted that some countries have managed to make significant process as a result of anti-corruption reforms. These include Estonia, which has gained 10 points and how has a score of 74, Italy, which has climbed 14 points since 2012, and Greece, which went from a score of 36 in 2012 to a score of 49 last year.

No mention is made about Malta’s recent reforms.

The CPI lists Slovenia and Austria as the two ‘countries to watch’ this year.

On a global level, this year’s Corruption Perceptions Index reveals that corruption levels have stagnated worldwide. Despite commitments on paper, 131 countries have made no significant progress against corruption over the last decade and this year 27 countries are at historic lows in their CPI score.

The CPI scores 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, according to experts and business people

The average global score is 43. Two-thirds of countries scored below 50.

Malta’s 2020 score was an all-time low for the country, which was described by Transparency International as a ‘significant decliner.’

It had highlighted the need for reforms and the increased perception of corruption as a result of the findings of the Daphne Caruana Galizia public inquiry, as well as the protests that took place in 2020, the resignation of Joseph Muscat and the arrest of Keith Schembri.