On Thursday 28th January 2021, Transparency International Rwanda (TI-RW) has virtually launched the 11th edition of its annual publication dubbed “Rwanda Bribery Index (RBI)” and the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2020 conducted by Transparency International (TI).

As the CPI 2020 results reveal, Rwanda’s score has increased from 53% to 54% points to make her 49th on the global rank (from 51st in 2019) and retained the fourth position in the Sub-Saharan Africa and the lead in the East-African region as the least corrupt country.

“For us to keep increasing our score, all actors are needed to be active in the fight. Particularly amid this time, we should remember that corruption undermines an equitable response to Covid-19 pandemic. At this juncture, all institutions should strengthen anti-corruption measures in a bid to be able to address unpredictable Covid-19 aftermath,” said Apollinaire Mupiganyi, TI-RW executive Director.

On the other hand, as per RBI 2020, 52.8% of Rwandans consider the level of corruption to be low while 20.5% perceive that it is high. Moreover, the majority of Rwandans consider the government’s efforts to fight corruption as effective but this perception has slightly decreased at 6% from 81.9% in 2019 to 75.9% in 2020.

“This is due to the fact that the containment of Covid-19 pandemic highly drew government’s attention and a little bit minimized the anti-corruption efforts,” Marie Immaculée Ingabire, Chairperson of TI-RW said. “As the level of reporting remains low, all stakeholders should be visible and be engaged in empowering citizens, sensitize them to report and assure them of their safety when they report cases of corruption.”

[Read the reports]

Rwanda Bribery Index 2020 findings
According to the report, over the last 12 months of 2020, 19.2% of Rwandans directly or indirectly demanded or offered bribe in an interaction with an institution.

Due to Covid-19 related circumstances, prevalence and likelihood of bribery has increased in institutions more involved in the containment of the covid-19. While the likelihood of bribe stands at 3.8% at the national level, it emerged that the private sector and the Traffic Police registered the highest likelihood to demand bribe to service seekers with 12.9% and 12.7% respectively.

The survey also indicates that the traffic police and private sector registered the highest prevalence of bribe with 12% and 7% respectively while the national prevalence stands at 2.50% in 2020 from 2% in 2019.

The report underpins that low level of reporting remains among the challenges impeding the fight against corruption. 88.1% did not report with the main reasons being that it did not occur to them that they needed to report (25.7%) and fear of self-incrimination (20.1%).

“As the current Covid-19 pandemic constitutes a high-risk factor for loopholes of corruption, the government is recommended to embrace continuous citizens’ awareness to report corruption as well as CSOs and media engagement as partners in this struggle,” said Albert Rwego Kavatiri, TI-RW program manager while presenting the findings.

Interestingly, as per the report, the national average size of bribe decreased to Rw97,529 in 2020 from Rwf121,567 in 2019. It is worth noting that average size of bribe paid to judges has significantly decreased in 2020 (from Rwf206,000 in 2018 and Rwf345,000 in 2019 to Rwf48,125 in 2020).

The report recommends Rwanda National Police (RNP) and Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) to continue practicing the Zero Tolerance Policy while enforcing covid-19 preventive measures ; Private Sector federation (PSF) to be more visible and engaged in the fight against corruption especially during this covid-19 pandemic crisis and establish sound internal control mechanisms and whistle-blowing systems ; and the local government to harness the partnership with grassroots based non state actors (CSOs, media, CBOs, faith-based organizations).

Corruption Perceptions Index 2020 findings
According to the report, Rwanda has increased its score from 53% (2019) to 54% (2019) and is now ranked 49th globally from 51st in the CPI 2019. Rwanda retained the fourth position in the Sab-Saharan Africa following Seychelles (27th with 66% score), Botswana (35th with 60%) and Cabo Verde (41st with 58) and is the first in the East African region.

The 2020 Rwanda’s score has been derived from seven sources which are : World Economic Forum EOS (76%), Global Insight Country Risk Ratings (59%) Varieties of Democracy Project (59%), World Justice Project Rule of Law Index (54%) the African Development Bank CPIA (49%), World Bank CPIA (43%) and the Bertelsmann Foundation Sustainable Governance (37%).

Globally, Denmark and New Zealand top the index, with 88 points. Syria, Somalia and South Sudan come last, with 14, 12 and 12 points, respectively.
Sab-Saharan Africa is the lowest scoring region with the average of 32% while the global average score stands at 43% (2/3 countries score below 50%).

In our region, Rwanda is followed by Tanzania (49th with 38%), Kenya (94th with 31%), Uganda (142nd with 27%), Burundi and DRC (165th with 19%).

“COVID-19 is not just a health and economic crisis. It is a corruption crisis. And one that we are currently failing to manage,” Delia Ferreira Rubio, Chair of Transparency International said. “The past year has tested governments like no other in memory, and those with higher levels of corruption have been less able to meet the challenge. But even those at the top of the CPI must urgently address their role in perpetuating corruption at home and abroad.”
As per the report, persistent corruption is undermining health care systems and contributing to democratic backsliding amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

About RBI and CPI
Rwanda Bribery Index (RBI) is an annual publication conducted by Transparency International Rwanda with the aim of assessing the incidence of bribery in different institutions and services that are perceived to be most prone to corruption. This is the 11th edition since the first publication in 2010.

The 2020 survey was conducted in all 4 provinces of Rwanda and City of Kigali in 11 quasi-randomly selected districts with 2,336 respondents as the sample size. 45.3% of the respondents were women while men count 54.7%. 63.6% respondents are rural dwellers while 36.4% live in urban areas.

Since also 1995, Transparency International (TI) has been publishing the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) which has been widely credited with putting the issue of corruption on the international policy agenda.

The CPI ranks countries based on how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be by experts and is measured based on a combination of 13 reliable surveys and assessments of corruption worldwide.