Lanka slides down on CPI: Cause for alarm

Sri Lanka's declining rank on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2006, of Transparency International (TI) reflects the continuous deterioration of the corruption situation in the country.

Sri Lanka's rank has dipped a considerable 6 notches bringing it from 78 in 2005 to 84 in 2006, in the index which covers 163 countries, TI's Sri Lanka office said.

Further the Confidence Range indicator of Sri Lanka has fallen by another 0.1 this year, bringing it down to 3.1. It is also significant that Sri Lanka which had scored over all other countries in the South Asian sub continent, in the past, has for the first time ranked below India.

The CPI score relates to perceptions of the degree of corruption as seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between 10 (highly clean) and 0 (highly corrupt).

Having regard to the global implications, recognition and comprehensive nature of the CPI, TI Sri Lanka has urged all stakeholders, with special emphasis on the government of Sri Lanka to pay immediate attention to these warning signals and to take all measures to combat this menace of corruption. The need is now urgent to implement the international commitments under the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which7 has been ratified by Sri Lanka.