*There are missing assessments for Nigeria in the data entries where the country has performed well in previous CPI calculations, says Lai Mohammed, Honourable Minister for Information and Culture

Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect

Sequel to the country’s recent ranking, the Federal Government says it is interrogating a number of issues and discrepancies observed in the Transparency International (TI) 2020 Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

ConsumerConnect reports the TI data had suggested that the country’s corruption situation worsened in 2020, when the organisation’s CPI placed Nigeria 149 out of the 180 countries surveyed.

Alhaji Lai Mohammed, Honourable Minister for Information and Culture, disclosed this in a statement by Mr. Segun Adeyemi, his Senior Special Assistant, Sunday, January 31, titled: ‘2020 TI-CPI rating not true reflection of Nigeria’s anti-corruption agenda – FG’.

The Minister contends that having analysed the 2020 TI-CPI rating for Nigeria, “the Federal Government is interrogating a number of issues and discrepancies that have been observed in the rating process, including some data sources in which Nigeria’s scores have remained flat over the past 10 years, reflecting no improvement, decline or fluctuation.

“This is very improbable given the nature of behaviour of variables, which are normally influenced by a variety of factors (which is the reason they are called ‘variables’).”

Alhaji Mohammed stated that “in this case, the corruption scores would have been affected by changes in the size and structure of the public sector over the past 10 years, changes in policies and personnel and systems over the period including, for instance, process automation, etc.

“There is therefore a need to verify that there is no transposition of figures from year to year due to absence of current

Data.”

Different assessments on the same indicators (for instance corruption in the bureaucracy) by different rating institutions have generated different scores and different rankings across the ranking agencies, he said.

The Minister further noted “there is a need to understand why these variations occur, and consequently the robustness of the methodology and validity of data.”

According to him, there are missing assessments for Nigeria in the data entries where the country has performed well in previous CPI calculations, like the African Development Bank Country Policy and Institutional Assessment.

“There is a need to understand why scores for this assessment have not been recorded for Nigeria for the past two years, which has had the effect of reducing Nigeria’s cumulative score and ranking relative to countries with those scores included in their CPI for both years,” said Mohammed.

The Minister maintained the implementation of the various reforms, especially in the Ease of Doing Business, is expected to yield positive outcomes in the country’s corruption perception and other relevant assessments in the next 12 to 24 months.

“For instance, following the release of the 2019 TI-Corruption Perception Index, the government initiated reforms to improve on Nigeria’s Ease of Doing Business indices. “This is because we found that up to 40% of the country’s corruption perception survey indices relate to business processes and general public service delivery processes. Government’s swift action has led to major reforms in the processes at our ports and business process points,” he stated.

It is recalled Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, in a statement Thursday, January 28, also responded to the assessment.

Though the SAA did not provide handy facts and figures to counter the Transparency International’s CPI on the country Malam Shehu said the report is not an accurate portrayal of the facts on the ground.

He stated: “The Buhari administration deserves credit for diminishing corruption in the public service and will continue to vigorously support prevention, enforcement, public education and enlightenment activities of anti-corruption agencies.

“We have repeatedly challenged TI to provide indices and statistics of its own to justify its sensational and baseless rating on Nigeria and the fight against corruption.

“We expect them to come clean and desist from further rehashing of old tales.”