ISLAMABAD –Transparency International Chairman breaks silence over the latest Corruption Index Report.
Transparency International Pakistan (TIP) Chairman Sohail Muzaffar has issued a clarification statement on the lowering of Pakistan’s score by one point on the Corruption Perceptions Index 2019, and stated that TV channels, newspapers and a number of politicians had “misreported the CPI report and given false figures trying to damage the reputation of Pakistan” and nowhere in the report it was mentioned that “corruption has increased in Pakistan”.
“Lowering of Pakistan Score by one does not reflect any increase or decrease in Corruption as it is within the standard margin of error which is 2.46% , and is the case of score lowered from 88 to 87 for Denmark, which is least corrupt country in 2018 as well as 2019,” the press release issued by the TIP chairman clarified.
Following are the clarifications on misreporting on CPI 2019 in media:
1. “Out of 8 sources used in Pakistan CPI, data of 2016/17 is used by Bertelsmann Stiftung Transformation Index 2020 Code: BF(TI) lower score by 3, and data of 2015/2016/2017 is used by Rule of Law Index 2019 lower score by 2, and that 6 other Sources scores are same as in 2018. Reality is that Bertelsmann Stiftung Transformation Index 2020 data is not made public, and will be declared in 2020, and only provided to TI for CPI purpose, media report has quoted data of CPI 2018.
Rule of Law data was collected between May and November 2018, and RLI 2018 used data was collected between May and December 2017. In fact BTI score is lower by 4.12 and not 3, and RoL Index score is lower by 2.4 and not 2.
And the scores of other 6 sources used in CPI are all different form 2018, scores of 3 sources ( WB, PRS,EIU )are increased and in 2 sources ( VDP, WEF,GICR) the scores are reduced.”
2. “One leader said in media that CPI 2019 has rated the governments of President Musharraf as most corrupt, of Imran Khan 2nd most corrupt and of PMLN as cleanest and PPP as 2nd cleanest, and TI/TI-Pakistan has engineered CPI 2019. Reality is that CPI 2019 has not given any such rating for Pakistan, nor for any other country.
TI does not have its own data input in CPI, and TI Pakistan has not role in making of CPI, nor has any data input in it.”
The press release further clarifies on how CPI is prepared by Transparency International in Germany, and what data is used in CPI as: