The Maldives remain at a worrying place in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) compiled by Transparency International for 2025.
With a score of 39 in the index, the Maldives ranked 91st out of 182 countries.
"Countries such as Maldives (39), Vietnam (41) and Timor Leste (44) show a consistent and statistically significant upward rise since 2012, due to structural reforms that have strengthened oversight institutions, or in the case of Vietnam, due to effective management of petty corruption," Transparency International said.
"However, these countries continue to score on the lower range of the index, with much room for improvement."
Meanwhile, Transparency Maldives, its local chapter, said the score reflects ongoing governance challenges, including the centralization of executive power, shrinking civic space, and weakened independence of oversight institutions.
"From politicized appointments to opaque decision-making in state-owned enterprises, systemic vulnerabilities continue to undermine public trust and accountability."
Transparency Maldives called for urgent reforms to restore institutional integrity and protect the fundamental freedoms necessary to tackle corruption effectively.
Recommendations for the Maldives
- Ensure the independence and impartiality of key institutions, including oversight bodies, the judiciary, and local governance structures, with appointments based on merit and free from political influence.
- Ensure that the principles of decentralization enshrined in the Constitution are upheld to empower local councils and strengthen democratic governance.
- Protect civic space, media freedom, access to information and other fundamental freedoms to allow citizens to engage meaningfully in governance and hold public institutions accountable.
- Strengthen transparency and accountability across all public institutions and state-owned enterprises to reduce corruption risks، prevent misuse of resources and culture of impunity.
- Reinforce anti-corruption mechanisms, including robust oversight, effective enforcement of asset declaration and recovery frameworks, and protections for whistleblowers.
- Promote inclusive citizen participation in legislative, policy, and development processes, ensuring that governance is responsive, participatory, and aligned with principles of decentralization.
- Align national governance practices with international norms and commitments, including UNCAC (United Nations Convention against Corruption) and OGP (Open Government Partnership) standards, to minimize corruption vulnerabilities and safeguard public resources.
The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories around the globe by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, scoring on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
