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Morocco was ranked 86th in the 2020 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), released Thursday by Transparency International. With a score of 40, Morocco drops three points on the CPI compared to last year. The country has fallen into the «chronic corruption zone».
The index, which ranks 179 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, indicates that in 2020, the state of emergency imposed by Morocco led to restriction of movement and the closure of national borders.
These measures, according to Transparency International, would have «lacked oversight and allowed for special exemptions for which the government has not been held to account». The CPI indicates that these measures covered several areas, including health care, which, accordingly, would have posed «significant risks for mismanaged funds and corruption».
The report also says that «corruption contributes to the poor health system and a lack of an effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic».
In addition to that, the German NGO speaks of «violations of free speech and press» which would have occurred in 2020. «The arrest and imprisonment of journalists who criticize public authorities, investigate cases of corruption, or highlight a lack of government transparency», it added.
Other Arab countries improve their world rankings
Regionally, Morocco is ranked ninth out of 19 Arab States. The United Arab Emirates (21st) comes first, followed by Qatar (30th), Oman (49th), Saudi Arabia (52nd) and Jordan (60th), which is ahead of Tunisia (69th), Bahrain (78th) and Kuwait (78th).
Algeria (104th) comes behind Morocco, followed by Egypt (117th), Mauritania (134th), Lebanon (149th), Iraq (160th), Libya (173rd), Sudan (174th) Yemen (176th) Syria (178th) and Somalia (179th) which comes last in the global ranking.
In the Maghreb region, Tunisia heads the ranking, followed by Morocco, which does a little better than neighbors Algeria and Mauritania. More generally, it is Denmark and New Zealand that top the world ranking, with a score of 88. The weakest countries in the ranking are Syria, with 14 points, as well as Somalia, which scored 12 out of 100.
To compile data for the 2020 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Transparency International explains that iy would have relied on «various surveys carried out by international agencies to establish a score and a ranking of countries on a corruption scale and lack of transparency». It thus relied on 13 surveys and expert assessments.
