The Latest Corruption Perception Index and Manasseh’s Malicious Reportage

I am currently locked up at a place out of Accra where there’s a challenging internet connection.
Nevertheless, I have been able to read bits and pieces of the latest corruption perception index released recently by the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), which says Ghana maintained its 2018 score of 41.

Manasseh Azure Awuni’s “The Ghana Report” portal carried the report with the headline: “Corruption Index: Mahama’s worst better than Akufo-Addo’s best. “I have sighted another portal – mynewsghana – reporting Manasseh as asking why members of the government’s Facebook army are quiet on the latest CPI. This clearly exposes the malice driving his jaundiced reportage.

I must say that I don’t know government’s official position on the CPI yet.

Manasseh reports that: “Ghana’s scores from 2012 to 2019 indicate that the worst performance within the period was recorded in the last three years. Even though the country’s performance has generally been unimpressive, things appear to be getting worse under the presidency of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.”

Thankfully, ladies and gentlemen, Manasseh is not the only one who has Ghana’s CPI scores. Here is the scores since its inception:
2019 – 41.00
2018 – 41.00
2017 – 40.00
2016 – 43.00
2015 – 47.00
2014 – 48.00
2013 – 46.00
2012 – 45.00
2011 – 39.00
2010 – 41.00
2009 – 39.00
2008 – 39.00
2007 – 37.00

Manasseh thinks that dwelling on the scores from 2012 to 2019 would help his course of seeking to make this government look awful so in his analysis he conveniently disregard the entire scores and rather dwells on the scores from 2012 to 2019 to draw the conclusion that this government is the worst in the fight against corruption.
Even though the 41 score is greatly undesirable and indicates that a lot more is required in the fight against corruption, it is not accurate that it’s Ghana’s worst performance. Neither does it suggest that things appear to be getting worse.

Any diligent analyst who looks at the scores critically would notice that the year in which corruption was perceived to be rampant and out of control was 2016. The 2016 score indicates that a lot of Ghanaians were of the opinion that corruption was being normalized. That’s why the 2016 score is the ONLY score in the history of the CPI to have recorded a whopping 4 points drop, the BIGGEST DROP EVER, from the preceding year’s. You don’t just focus on the drop. You must also consider the quantum of the drop before drawing conclusion.

So, to look at the CPI scores and report from it that corruption appears to be getting worse in the last three years is obviously being disingenuous out of malice.

As journalists and citizens, we owe it to this beautiful country to speak truth to power. However, speaking truth to power does not mean disregard professionalism, twist facts and speak it to power as the truth. Whoever does that is himself criminally minded, corrupt and not different from those in power he perceives as corrupt.

Source: David Ackah-Miezah