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How to
move forward on governance and corruption
JULY 2006: We know that good
governance matters for development. It is clear that corruption
holds development back. As general propositions, both are
straightforward. What is much more challenging is to specify which
aspects of governance matter most, and to find effective ways of
tackling poor governance and corruption. I propose that the aid
community needs to be more open-minded and to think harder about
what works, rather than prescribing standard formulas. A rapid
review of the things we understand and the things we don’t suggests
five ways of moving forward. (Read
more...)
Procurement fraud and misconduct – a rising trend in East Africa?
JULY 2006: The very mention of the
word ‘procurement’ to anyone in the East Africa region is likely to
result in animated expression and debate. Images of ‘commissions’,
rife corruption involving onerous road contracts and tenders –
particularly in the public and government sectors – promptly come
to mind, especially in light of extensive recent press coverage on
allegations of high-level corruption in the region. (Read
more...)
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Tackling overseas corruption in the engineering and construction
industry
Corruption is not often considered to
be a major problem for UK business. However, operating in a global
marketplace, the reality is that an element of corruption can
feature in daily business life in many parts of the world. It is
often recognised by industry bodies to be especially so in
engineering and construction projects. (Read
more...)
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Cultures of Corruption: Evidence From Diplomatic Parking Tickets
Corruption is believed to be a major
factor impeding economic development, but the importance of legal
enforcement versus cultural norms in controlling corruption is
poorly understood. To disentangle these two factors, we exploit a
natural experiment, the stationing of thousands of diplomats from
around the world in New York City. Taken together, factors other
than legal enforcement appear to be important determinants of
corruption. (Read
more...)
Measuring
Corruption: Myths and Realities
There is renewed interest in the
World Bank, and among aid donors and aid recipients in monitoring
corruption, both in aid-financed projects as well as more broadly
in developing countries. This in turn has sparked new debate on how
best to measure corruption and monitor progress in reducing it.
This note highlights some of the main issues in these debates, in
the form of six myths and their associated realities. (Read
more...)
Corruption
threatens health care worldwide
APRIL 2006: Corruption in the
Health-Care Sector deprives those most in need of essential medical
care, according to Transparency International's (TI's) Global
Corruption Report 2006. Increased aid to acutely vulnerable
countries alone will not be effective if corruption is not curbed,
the report asserts. Instead, accountability mechanisms are needed
to prevent the misallocation of valuable resources. (Read
more...)
Corruption in Public Procurement: Risks and Reform Policies
(Bulgaria)
Public procurement is among those
spheres in the management of the public sector in Bulgaria which
are characterized by the highest corruption risk. Generally
speaking, the abuses in this sphere relate to the awarding of the
public procurement contract to a pre-selected supplier to the
detriment of the public interest through violation of the
principles of competition for the purpose of gaining personal
benefit.
The report examines the corruption in
public procurement and assesses the losses from it. It also focuses
on big corruption in public procurement with a view to the
fine-tuning of the policy tools. This type of corruption covers all
transactions and procedures which fall or should fall within the
scope of the public procurement legislation. These are most of the
supplies whose price or qualitative parameters are subject to
negotiation between the contracting authorities in the public
sector and the suppliers from the private sector. (Read
more...)
Corruption and fraud: any lessons for the auditor?
The Prevention and Combating of
Corrupt Activities Act, Act 12 of 2004, was instituted to curb
corrupt activities. It imposes a duty on people in positions of
authority to report corrupt or suspected corrupt activities and
related activities. However, auditors are not listed in this Act as
persons in a position of authority.
This article discusses whether,
despite the fact that the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt
Activities Act does not place such a reporting duty on an auditor,
auditors nevertheless have a duty in terms of other legislation to
report any unlawful activities that they uncover in the course of
their work, or which they suspect to have been committed. The
article also examines whether auditors are required to consider the
risk of corruption. (Read
more...)
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