November 15, 2021 – Canada receives a ‘C’ grade with a score of 54/100 in the 2020 Government Defence Integrity Index (GDI) released today by Transparency International.
Countries that score poorly in the GDI have weak or non-existent safeguards against defence sector corruption and are more likely to experience conflict, instability, and human rights abuses. Canada’s ‘C’ grade indicates modest institutional resilience to corruption.
GDI research found that while Canada has a number of defence oversight mechanisms in place to review policy, finance, and procurement, there remains some gaps, such no anti-corruption doctrine for operations, as well lags in enforcement.
Research for the GDI was conducted in 2020, before the steady revelations of allegations of sexual misconduct in senior ranks of the Canadian Armed Forces and their handling in the CAF and by the Ministry of National Defence that occurred this year. However, the issues that have come forward in 2021 are part of systemic issues identified in the GDI, as have been identified by the Office of the Auditor General and retired Supreme Court judge, Morris Fish. In particular, research for the GDI found that whistleblower protections are weak and the practice is discouraged in defence.
The GDI results come as global military spending has increased to some $2 trillion annually, fuelling the scale and opportunity for corruption.
The GDI assesses and scores 86 countries across five risk areas: financial, operational, personnel, political, and procurement, before assigning an overall score. It uses the following scale:
READ THE FULL GDI AND CANADA’S SCORE CARD AT: ti-defence.org/gdi
Canada highlights
Canada has ranked 29th overall out of 85 countries.
Canada received a C grade, as did 23 other countries that are assessed.
Canada has received an overall score of 54/100 with modest institutional resilience to corruption.
Canada has received an 'F'-grade for its work in keeping military operations resilient to corruption. While risk is moderate to low in other areas of defense, there is still work to be done.
Canada scores across corruption risk categories are:
Political Risk 70/100
Financial Risk 55/100
Personnel Risk 64/100
Operational Risk 16/100
Procurement Risk 67/100
Global highlights
62% of countries receive an overall score of 49/100 or lower, indicating a high to critical risk of defence sector corruption across all world regions.
New Zealand tops the Index with a score of 85/100.
The average score for G20 countries is 49/100.
49% of global arms imports are sold to counties facing a high to critical risk of defence corruption.
Natalie Hogg, Director of Transparency International’s Defence and Security Programme, said:
“These results show that most defence and security sectors around the world lack essential safeguards against corruption. Defence sector corruption undermines defence forces, weakening their ability to provide security to citizens, secure national borders and bring about peace. In the worst cases defence sector corruption has the potential to exacerbate conflict rather than to respond to it effectively.
We urge all governments featured in this Index to act on these findings. They must strengthen their safeguards against corruption and remove the veil of secrecy that so often prevents meaningful oversight of the defence sector. It’s critical that they embed anti-corruption at the core of all military operations to stop corruption and its devastating impact on civilians around the world.”
Notes to editors:
About Transparency International
Through chapters in more than 100 countries, Transparency International has been leading the fight against corruption for the last 27 years.
The GDI is produced by Transparency International’s Defence and Security Programme, based in London, UK.
About the Government Defence Integrity Index
The GDI is the only global assessment of the governance of and corruption risks in defence sectors. The GDI was previously known as the Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index (GI). The Index underwent a major update for the 2020 version, including changes to the methodology and scoring underpinning the project. This means overall country scores from this 2020 version cannot be accurately compared with country scores from previous iterations of the Index.
For more information, visit www.ti-defence.org/gdi/about
For inquiries, please contact:
Transparency International Canada
James Cohen,
Executive Director, Transparency International Canada
E-mail: ti-can@transparencycanada.ca
Phone: 416-488-3939
Transparency International Defence and Security
Harvey Gavin
harvey.gavin@transparency.org.uk
+44 (0)20 3096 7695
+44 (0)79 6456 0340 (out of hours)