The Bahamas is ranked the fourth least corrupt country in the Americas behind Canada, Uruguay and Barbados, and ahead of the United States, in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2025.
Matt Aubry, executive director of the Organization for Responsible Governance (ORG), told Guardian Business yesterday that despite being ranked the fourth least corrupt country in the Americas, behind Barbados and ahead of the United States, “The bigger story here isn’t that we’re ranked fourth in the region. It’s what the trend is telling us about trust.”
He continued: “The Bahamas is still performing relatively well compared to many countries in the region, but our score declined. The CPI isn’t measuring actual corruption cases, it’s measuring how corruption risk, accountability, and integrity are perceived by experts and business leaders. At its core, it’s really a proxy for confidence in institutions.”
Corruption in The Bahamas remains a significant challenge, though the country maintains one of the stronger governance profiles in the Caribbean. The environment is characterized by systemic vulnerabilities, including unregulated campaign financing, cronyism, and drug-related institutional infiltration, though various legislative and reporting frameworks have been established to combat these issues.
Currently, the government is contending with reports that it issued $200,000 worth of vouchers during the May 12 general election, using public funds through the Ministry of Finance.
In addition, there is a current US drug interdiction case involving a retired police officer, Jonathan Eric “Player” Gardiner, who was detained by US authorities after a chartered plane he was in crashed in Bahamian waters. Gardiner was rescued and detained on May 12 in relation to drug-related offenses in New York. He had $30,000 in cash in a bag marked with a name that was redacted and labeled “Politician-1”.
Aubry continued: “We’ve talked before about how trust is one of those things that’s built slowly and lost quickly. Passing legislation is important, but people don’t experience legislation, they experience whether they can get information, decisions seem fair, rules are applied consistently, and whether accountability actually happens when something goes wrong.
“That’s what makes the current budget conversation so relevant. We now have many of the pieces on paper — FOIA [Freedom of Information Act], protected disclosures, the ombudsman, the Independent Commission of Investigations, procurement reforms, and other accountability mechanisms. But several of these remain underfunded, only partially implemented, or not yet fully operational. It’s very difficult to build confidence in institutions that people can’t yet see working in practice.
“These aren’t just anti-corruption measures, they are trust-building measures. They can help Bahamians feel more confident that the government is operating fairly and transparently. They also send important signals externally to investors, development partners, and international bodies that The Bahamas is serious about governance, accountability, and the rule of law.
“So my takeaway is that the CPI shouldn’t be viewed as a victory lap because we’re ahead of some countries, nor as a crisis because our score slipped. It’s more of a reminder that trust requires constant investment.
“If we want stronger public confidence, greater civic participation, and better development outcomes, then the accountability systems we’ve spent years talking about need to move from legislation to implementation, and from implementation to visible results that people can actually see and experience.”
