{"id":157774,"date":"2026-08-10T15:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T22:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=157774"},"modified":"2026-08-10T15:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T22:34:11","slug":"corruption-in-fast-developing-maldives-sri-lanka-is-not-far-behind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2026\/08\/10\/corruption-in-fast-developing-maldives-sri-lanka-is-not-far-behind\/","title":{"rendered":"Corruption in fast developing Maldives\u00a0-Sri Lanka is not far behind\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><strong>Posted by Dr Sarath Obeysekera\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/srilanka.ahk.de\/en\/events\/sri-lanka-moves-up-14-places-in-the-2025-corruption-perceptions-index\">https:\/\/srilanka.ahk.de\/en\/events\/sri-lanka-moves-up-14-places-in-the-2025-corruption-perceptions-index<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.lk\/current-affairs\/sri-lanka-improves-global-ranking-in-corruption-perceptions-index-2025\">https:\/\/www.news.lk\/current-affairs\/sri-lanka-improves-global-ranking-in-corruption-perceptions-index-2025<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Extracted from Google&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Maldives&nbsp;scores 39 out of 100 on the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=i&amp;source=web&amp;rct=j&amp;url=https:\/\/transparency.mv\/press-statement-international-anti-corruption-day-2025\/&amp;ved=2ahUKEwj40pS2lpKWAxUWRCoJHRqHNicQy_kOegoIAggACAAICBAC&amp;opi=89978449&amp;cd&amp;psig=AOvVaw0epezCv6-xZi8RJEjJ7Hs-&amp;ust=1786317777963000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Transparency International<\/a>&nbsp;Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking 91st globally. Watchdogs report little to no meaningful progress against systemic high-level corruption, citing centralized executive authority, weak oversight enforcement, and unresolved grand corruption scandals.&nbsp;[<a href=\"https:\/\/anfrel.org\/press-statement-corruption-and-climate-change-maldives-decline-in-the-corruption-perception-index-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/corporatemaldives.com\/maldives-scores-39-on-corruption-index-as-watchdog-flags-governance-concerns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/maldivesindependent.com\/politics\/watchdog-questions-corruption-score-as-maldives-stagnates-on-annual-index-8a6d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">3<\/a>]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>State-Level Corruption and Governance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Systemic High-Level Power:<\/strong>\u00a0Corruption remains concentrated at top tiers of governance, involving unaddressed historical grand scandals and asset recovery failures.\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/maldivesindependent.com\/politics\/little-to-no-progress-maldives-slides-on-corruption-index-a34a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/anfrel.org\/press-statement-corruption-and-climate-change-maldives-decline-in-the-corruption-perception-index-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2<\/a>]<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Institutional Concentration:<\/strong>\u00a0Executive centralization, appointment controls over oversight bodies, and changes affecting judicial independence heighten state capture risks.\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/transparency.mv\/press-statement-international-anti-corruption-day-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/corporatemaldives.com\/maldives-scores-39-on-corruption-index-as-watchdog-flags-governance-concerns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2<\/a>]<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Opaque Practices:<\/strong>\u00a0Island leasing, public sector investment programs, and state-owned enterprise decision-making continue to suffer from a lack of transparency.\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/anfrel.org\/press-statement-corruption-and-climate-change-maldives-decline-in-the-corruption-perception-index-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/corporatemaldives.com\/maldives-scores-39-on-corruption-index-as-watchdog-flags-governance-concerns\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Environmental and Public Sector Impacts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u00a0<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Climate and Resource Diversion:<\/strong>\u00a0Financial misconduct and public sector inefficiencies divert critical resources away from national climate adaptation and resilience.\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/acc.gov.mv\/en\/media\/news\/384\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1<\/a>]<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Regulatory Control:<\/strong>\u00a0Structural shifts, such as placing environmental protection functions under direct ministerial oversight, weaken independent public checks.\u00a0[<a href=\"https:\/\/transparency.mv\/press-statement-international-anti-corruption-day-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1<\/a>]<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A news report detailing specific allegations and financial misconduct concerns involving high-level Maldivian leadership:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" src=\"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/image-17.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-157775\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Regards<br><br>Dr Sarath Obeysekera<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Posted by Dr Sarath Obeysekera\u00a0 https:\/\/srilanka.ahk.de\/en\/events\/sri-lanka-moves-up-14-places-in-the-2025-corruption-perceptions-index https:\/\/www.news.lk\/current-affairs\/sri-lanka-improves-global-ranking-in-corruption-perceptions-index-2025 Extracted from Google&nbsp; The Maldives&nbsp;scores 39 out of 100 on the&nbsp;Transparency International&nbsp;Corruption Perceptions Index, ranking 91st globally. Watchdogs report little to no meaningful progress against systemic high-level corruption, citing centralized executive authority, weak oversight enforcement, and unresolved grand corruption scandals.&nbsp;[1,&nbsp;2,&nbsp;3] State-Level Corruption and Governance Environmental and Public Sector [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dr-sarath-obeysekera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157776,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157774\/revisions\/157776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}