President Wavel Ramkalawan expressed pride after Seychelles remained the top scorer in the Sub-Saharan Africa region and moved up to 20th place globally on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2023 released on Tuesday.

According to State House, Ramkalawan said, "We are extremely proud. This displays the commitment of this administration to ensuring that transparency and good governance remain at the core of our decisions and actions. As a country, we will continue to strive to improve our CPI ranking whilst also ensuring we maintain the integrity, credibility, and confidence in our public institutions. Seychelles remains steadfast in its quest to eliminate corruption and increase public trust." 

Seychelles scored 71 points out of 100 and climbed up three spots, from 23rd to 20^th, the same as France and the United Kingdom, on the global ranking out of 180 countries.

The CPI report, which is released every year on January 30, rates the perception of corruption in the public sector using a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is clean.

The commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission Seychelles, May De Silva, welcomed the improved score in particular for Seychelles in strengthening its standing as the least corrupt country in Africa.

"For three consecutive years, we have maintained the top spot in Africa by improving our governance and legislation. We continue to work collaboratively with our partners in the public, private, and NGO sectors to fight and prevent corruption. Most importantly, we are grateful to all the citizens and the media for continuing to shine a light on the issue and keep the fight against corruption in the public spotlight," said De Silva.

ACCS said in a press statement that Seychelles continues to be recognised regionally and internationally for its tireless work in trying to root out corruption in all its forms.

The Commission added that it "remains committed to fighting corruption and raising awareness in our small country. Since the last global annual report was issued the ACCS has made more arrests for corruption-related offences, charged more suspects, obtained convictions and seized more assets all over the world. Improvements in our legislative framework in fighting financial and economic crime cases help to enhance our governance structures.

Established under the  Anti-Corruption Act 2016, ACCS is working with several authorities in Seychelles as it continues to strengthen its "collective resolve to ensure that the public gets the services they deserve and pay for and that local and international businesses and visitors can have faith in our systems." 

The ACCS currently has two cases before the Supreme Court of Seychelles, namely the 'missing $50 million' case, where foreign aid was removed from a government account in 2002, and the mismanagement of loans at the Seychelles Business Finance Agency (SBFA).