Accra, Sept. 26, GNA - Ghana ranked 69th among 180 countries on the 2007 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) with a total score of 3.7 points, showing a slight improvement over last year's 70th position with a score of 3.3 points.

This was contained in the CPI annual report compiled by Transparency International (TI) and launched across the world on Wednesday.

Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII), the local affiliate of TI, which compiles the CPI on an annual basis, did the Accra launch.

Mr Vitus Azeem, Executive Secretary of GII, told journalists that Ghana's current position showed a meagre improvement in the fight against corruption, and there was no cause for celebration.

"The fact is that Ghana is still stagnating between the score of 3 and 4 and has yet to attain the half way score of 5," he said. Globally only 46 (25.5 per cent) out of 180 countries scored five and above, and these were mostly developed countries.

The criteria for awarding scores include grand political corruption, likelihood of encountering corrupt officials, misuse of public office for private or political party gain, level of achievement of anti-corruption efforts and country policy and industrial assessments.

At the 69th position, Ghana fell behind only six 49 African countries named in the report. The six are Botswana (38), South Africa (43), Cape Verde (49), Mauritius (53), Namibia (57) and Tunisia (61). They scored between 4.2 and 5.4 points.

Ghana scored the highest among all the West African countries, with Togo placing as low as 143 with a score of 2.3 points and Nigeria placing 147 with 2.2 points.

Somalia, which is described as a failed state without a properly installed government, placed last on the rankings with 1.4 points. Iraq ranked 178 with 1.5 points.

Mr Azeem advised government to introduce anti-money laundering measures to stop Ghana being a safe haven for stolen assets, stressing that multi-national companies must be made to implement effective anti-bribery codes to ensure that they were adhered to by subsidiaries and foreign officers.

He also urged politicians involved in campaigning ahead of the 2008 elections to exercise their rights in a manner that would ensure the practicality of a free and fair election, which is necessary to prevent political corruption.

The ninth position occupied by Norway with 8.7 points raised concerns at the launch, given the recent scandal involving the Norwegian-based Scancem, the mother company of GHACEM in Ghana. Mr Bede Zieden, Acting General Secretary of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), noted that it was worrying that though it had been made sufficiently clear that a Norwegian company schemed a plan to corrupt the governments of developing countries, Norway scored high to place ninth on the CPI.

"I think they should have scored lower on grounds of exporting corruption to developing countries," he said.

Dr Audrey Gadzekpo, a Director at GII, noted that no country could be accused of exporting corruption when developing countries themselves had weaker integrity systems and institutions.

She said developing countries needed to strengthen their integrity systems and laws to make corruption less attractive and expensive for foreign multi-nationals.

Dr Gadzekpo noted that though corruption was used based on perception, it did not mean corruption was non-existent and government actors should be seen to pursue the perception to establish the reality instead of demanding proof before taking action.

"The meeting point between the perception and the reality is in the commitment of government to work with civil society following leads to stem corruption," she said.