TI-Z Cautions Against Selective Criticism of CPI After Zambia’s 2025 Dip
Transparency International Zambia (TI-Z) has urged stakeholders to apply consistent standards when responding to Zambia’s performance on the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), warning against questioning the index only when results are unfavourable.
In a statement monitoring reactions to the latest CPI, TI-Z welcomed open engagement from stakeholders, including the Ministry of Information and Media and the Anti-Corruption Commission.
However, TI-Z expressed concern over what it described as a double standard in challenging the CPI’s methodology following a two-point decline, despite no such criticism when Zambia’s score improved in 2023 and 2024.
According to Maurice K. Nyambe, the CPI is a global index produced by Transparency International, ranking 182 countries and territories on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). He stressed that Zambia’s score is not computed by TI-Z and is not based on a single report.
Mr Nyambe explained that the CPI aggregates data from multiple independent sources, including assessments by the World Bank, the World Economic Forum and the African Development Bank.
These sources rely on expert and business assessments of public-sector corruption risks, rather than general public opinion, which he said are valid in qualitative research due to respondents’ direct interaction with public officials.
He further noted that the CPI methodology has undergone independent external validation, having been reviewed in 2014 and 2017 by the European Commission Joint Research Centre, which certified it as statistically and conceptually robust. The current methodology continues to follow that validated framework.
TI-Z also clarified that the CPI results are not derived from the Financial Intelligence Centre trends report or other government documents. References to such reports, including Auditor General findings and Constituency Development Fund audit observations, were used solely to provide national context and do not determine Zambia’s CPI score.
“Suggesting that Zambia’s two-point decline is due to misleading local reports misinforms the public about how the index is computed,” Mr Nyambe said, recalling that CPI improvements in 2023 and 2024 were widely cited as evidence of progress in the fight against corruption.
He added that it was inconsistent to celebrate the CPI during periods of improvement and discredit it during decline, particularly as the CPI remains a key indicator of anti-corruption performance in the Eight National Development Plan.
TI-Z emphasised that the CPI is not an attack on government but a measure of collective progress across state and non-state anti-corruption efforts. The organisation called on stakeholders to focus on addressing underlying causes of the decline, including strengthening political integrity, procurement enforcement, oversight follow-up and campaign finance regulation.
TI-Z reaffirmed its commitment to constructive engagement with government and all relevant stakeholders, stressing that the fight against corruption requires evidence-based reforms, consistent standards and a shared commitment to accountability, regardless of political convenience.
