SVG receives positive rating on perception of corruption

In relation to good governance, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves says that St Vincent and the Grenadines’ numbers are in the top one third in the world, according to a report from the World Bank.

He added also that as it relates to ease of doing business, we are also top{{more}} in the world.

The Prime Minister spoke about the report during a recent St Vincent and the Grenadines Chamber of Industry and Commerce (SVGCIC) cocktail, stressing that a couple of things, “pull our number down.”

He said that among the issues that affect our rankings is the amount of time it takes to start a business and register properties.

He, however, said that in his opinion, these issues are not the Government’s fault, but lawyers who hold up the process, “to make more money.”

Gonsalves also said that our rankings were also affected by inefficiencies at the Registry and in some cases by financial institutions that are not based in the country and take long periods of time to assess loans.

He said that the loan issue is one reason why it is important to have indigenous banks that understand the countries in which they operate.

Moving on, the Prime Minister noted that this country also received good ratings on the issue of corruption.

He said that a few months ago, the New Democratic Party (NDP) held a march calling for elections, while stating that there was too much corruption in the Government.

“There is only one problem, they plain wrong on the issue of corruption in the Government, because when Transparency International, who are charged internationally to look at these matters, when they gave their report in Berlin on December 3, they concluded that SVG’s numbers were good on this particular index on the perception of corruption.”

Transparency International is a non-governmental organization that monitors and publicizes corporate and political corruption in international development.

The Prime Minister stressed that SVG moved from good to better, the only country to achieve this.

He added also that there were three countries that moved their position, the other two moving upward in the failure zone, Egypt and Cote d’Ivoire.

He said that SVG moved from a ranking of 32 in the world to 29 while moving into the top five in the Western Hemisphere.

The 2014 corruption perception index measured the perceived levels of public sector corruption in 175 countries and territories.

“More than two thirds of the countries in the world are below 50 per cent. The only two that are ahead of us is Barbados (17) and Bahamas (24), but their numbers declined and I believe that in proper analysis, none of these countries are better than us, but I accept it from what it is”, said Gonsalves.

SVG scored 67 out of 100, up from 62, while the highest on the list, Denmark scored 92 out of 100.

African nations scored the lowest.