Sri lanka halfway between a flawed democracy and a hybrid regime

Colombo (News1st): An event was held today (Jan 29) to launch the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2018, compiled by the global coalition against corruption and Transparency International.  Sri Lanka has failed to show progress on the 2018 CPI, which evaluates the perceptions of public sector corruption. The 2018 Corruption Perceptions Index is computed using 13 surveys and expert assessments to measure public sector corruption in 180 countries and territories. Sri Lanka has scored 38 on the CPI 2018 retaining the same score from 2017. The scores are based on a scale of 0 - highly corrupt, to 100 - very clean. Sri Lanka is ranked 89th in the world and 3rd in South Asia, behind Bhutan at 25th and India ranked 78th. Despite the anti-corruption mandate provided to the government, Sri Lanka's CPI score fluctuates between 36 and 38 since 2013. Speaking to the media Executive Director of the Transparency International Sri Lanka Asoka Obeysekere said that Sri Lanka falls between what would be classified as a flawed democracy and a hybrid regime which has authoritarian tendencies. He noted that it is clear that there has been an implementation gap between the laws in the book and laws in which are implemented. Obeysekere noted that there are some key corruption-related cases that will most probably be heard and concluded. He went onto note that it is essential that the authorities ensure their impartiality and independence in dealing with these matters, to ensure that election-related interests do not attach to the anti-corruption cases over the coming year. Denmark and New Zealand are ranked 1st and 2nd respectively with scores of 88 and 87, with Somalia coming in last at 180th with a score of 10.