Ranked 58th out of 180 countries in the Transparency International global public sector corruption index, Namibia is the least corrupt of the countries with port gateways in the region.South Africa is ranked 70th, Tanzania 87th, Angola 136th, and Mozambique 147th.In southern Africa, only Botswana (45th) is ranked higher than Namibia.However, Namibia dropped two points, which shows a deterioration in the perceptions of its public service.In 2019 the country was rocked by the “Fishrot” scandal in which former politicians, businessmen, and lawyers were accused of bribery and corruption for siphoning off around R317 million from Namibia's fishing industry in collusion with Icelandic company Samherji.Details of the alleged corrupt dealings are contained in the WikiLeaks files.Three of the accused have been in custody since November 2019, another since February 2020, and the remaining two since December 2020.Their latest bail application was refused at the beginning of April. In the region, the Democratic Republic of Congo (169th), Zimbabwe (157th), Zambia (117th), Lesotho (96th) and eSwatini (112th) are all perceived as being more corrupt.According to Transparency International, each country’s score is a combination of at least three data sources drawn from 13 different corruption surveys and assessments.The data is collected by a variety of institutions, including the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.In 2021 Denmark, Finland and New Zealand all received the same score for the public sector to be ranked least corrupt.South Sudan is perceived to be the most corrupt.In Africa, the least corrupt is the Seychelles (23rd), followed by Cabo Verde (39th) and then Botswana. The perception of Botswana has, however, been in decline since 2012 following a series of scandals.Research by International Monetary Fund (IMF) economists Nelson Sobrinho and Vimal Thakoor found that the “governance dividend” for countries in sub-Saharan Africa was two to three times larger than for the average country in the rest of the world - even in regions perceived to have equally weak governance.Bringing sub-Saharan Africa’s governance to the world average could increase GDP per capita by an estimated one to two percentage points a year, they estimate.Benefits include enhanced revenue collection, more efficient government spending, and improved developmental outcomes and social inclusion.
