Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) scored 41 out of 100 in the 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), placing 81st out of 182 countries.
In the last five years, this country has scored in 41 or 42.
According to the report, 41 sits just below the regional average of 42 for the Americas in 2025, a figure that shows no real progress in the region’s collective fight against corruption.
In a media release, the T&T Transparency Institute (TTTI) said a stagnant score suggests that while commitments and initiatives to strengthen integrity, accountability and transparency exist, gaps in implementation and enforcement have prevented these efforts from translating into a perceptible shift in how the public sector is governed and perceived.
"Trinidad and Tobago’s unchanged CPI score of 41 reflects long-standing gaps between commitments and action. Based on TTTI’s work across its core focus areas, meaningful progress requires moving beyond legislation on paper to implementation in practice,” TTTI said.
The institute called for the immediate proclamation and operationalisation of the Whistleblower Protection Act, so individuals can report wrongdoing safely and institutions are legally required to respond. Without effective whistleblower protections, corruption remains hidden and accountability is weakened, it said.
TTTI said equally urgent is strengthening the enforcement of public procurement laws and closing loopholes that undermine oversight.
“The Office of Procurement Regulation must be adequately resourced and insulated from political interference, while exemptions and high thresholds that allow contracts to escape scrutiny should be reviewed,” the release said.
TTTI said the long-delayed campaign finance reform must be advanced to ensure transparent political financing, clear spending limits, donor disclosure, and independent enforcement, particularly as organised crime increasingly targets electoral systems across the region.
However, in an immediate response, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said the institute has no credibility and seems to only emerge when the United National Congress is in government to operate like a People’s National Movement party group.
“This organisation was asleep for the past ten years while the PNM wasted over 600 billion dollars,” Persad-Bissessar said.
In response to the Prime Minister, the TTTI said the report is prepared and released annually by Transparency International (the parent organisation). It said TTTI, as a chapter, only communicates the results, which they have done every year.
“We do not have anything else to add to our statement in response to this comment by the PM,” the institute said.
In last year’s report on corruption and the climate crisis, institute chairman Donna Jack-Hill called for stronger citizen engagement so those affected by climate change can help shape solutions, and in 2024 she spoke on the judiciary, warning that, “when corruption weakens justice systems, societies lose the ability to protect everyone’s rights, with marginalised groups most at risk.”
Meanwhile, political analyst Dr Bishnu Ragoonath said the stagnant score reflects long-standing weaknesses in both passing and enforcing key legislation.
“The challenge is not just passing the law but enforcing the law. That is where we have fallen short,” he said.
He cited delays in enacting procurement rules, whistleblower protections and campaign finance reforms, noting that governments often promise anti-corruption measures during campaigns but fail to follow through.
“We have talked about whistleblower legislation since before 2010… 16 years and counting, and still the same results... Governments do things to win elections… what we need is follow-through after the elections,” he said.
Ragoonath emphasised that meaningful progress requires political will, strict enforcement of existing laws and closing gaps in legislation, while also acknowledging that the current administration cannot be blamed for past failures.
