Mixed report card in 2008 corruption index

Nine West African countries shot up while nine others sank lower in the 2008 Transparency International (TI) ranking of perceptions of corruption in 180 countries. Of the 180 countries surveyed, eight West African countries placed in the bottom 20: Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, and finally, Guinea placing sixth from last.

Cape Verde, the only West African country to have graduated to the UN status of middle-income country, ranked 47. In a public statement, Chairman Huguette Labelle of the TI corruption watchdog group called corruption in poor countries an ongoing humanitarian disaster. “In the poorest countries, corruption levels can mean the difference between life and death when money for hospitals or clean water is at play.”

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