Ghana ranks 69 in global corruption index

Ghana was ranked 69th in Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI) which was released Tuesday. Ghana moved down two spots from its 2008 ranking, with a score of 3.9 out of 10.

Botswana, in 37th place, was the highest ranked African country, and one of only three to score more than five points, the other two being Mauritius and Cape Verde.

Ghana was ranked well ahead of most of its neighbors, Nigeria (130), Côte d´Ivoire (154), Togo (111) and Burkina Faso (79), but fell behind other African countries like Botswana(37), Cape Verde(46), South Africa(55), Namibia(56) and Tunisia(65) .

The index ranks the 180 participating countries according to the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians. The CPI draws on 13 different polls and surveys from 10 independent institutions, and includes surveys of business people and country analysts from organizations like the World Bank, the Economist Intelligence Unit and Freedom House.

Transparency International defines corruption as "The abuse of entrusted power for private gain." At the top of the list stands New Zealand, with a CPI score of 9.4, and at the bottom lies Somalia, with a score of 1.1.

Rounding up the top three are Denmark in second and Singapore, tied with Sweden in third. Down on the bottom, Somalia was narrowly beaten out by Afghanistan and Myanmar.

The United States ranked 19th,with a score of 7.5, while other aspiring global superpowers ranked substantially lower.