Yvonne Ngutlick

Papua New Guinea’s leading anti-corruption civil society organization Transparency International Papua New Guinea (TIPNG) marked its 25th Anniversary in Port Moresby on Thursday 27th January 2022, with an event recognizing the importance of its individual and organizational supporters. The silver jubilee celebrations by TIPNG, under the theme “Rise to the Occasion”, were also an opportunity to reflect on the efforts of Papua New Guineans 25 years ago to establish an association that would empower citizens to take action against corruption where it occurred, whether that be in the personal, public or private spheres of life.

With the official launch of the Transparency International 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) report this afternoon, the new data has now indicated a minor improvement in PNG’s score, from previous years. With a score of 31 out of 100 and a ranking of 124 out of 180 countries surveyed this year, PNG’s score has revealed a 4-point increase from last year. Although coming in at 14 points below the Asia Pacific Average of 45, and 12 points below the global average of 43, the results also indicate that there is still a lot of work to be done in combatting corrupt individuals, networks and systems in the country.

Transparency International Papua New Guinea (TIPNG) is calling on the Government to ensure lessons learnt from multiple Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee Public Hearings dating back to 2014, on the poor performance by contractors of medical supplies, are not ignored for political convenience.

In what has now been one of the most ambitious public opinion surveys of corruption in the Pacific, the official launching of the first ever Pacific component of the Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer (GCB), has now underscored a silver lining, in what is an otherwise burgeoning trend of corruption across the Pacific.