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Current: The ICAC has produced this corruption
prevention publication to guide public officials who may be offered
gifts, benefits or bribes in the course of their official duties.
It highlights the main issues that public officials should take
into account in deciding whether to accept a gift or benefit. The
publication is also intended to assist public sector agencies in
the development of their gifts and benefits policies. Some of the
main issues that should be considered when implementing such
policies are discussed. (Read
more...)
Conceptualising Corruption: Forms, Causes, Types and Consequences
Current: Corruption is essentially
the use of public power for private gain. The first obvious site
for such corruption is the public sector. The state's monopoly on
control of public resources and its preferential access to certain
sources of information require strict rules and procedures to
ensure fair practice. In the absence of such rules, and even at
times when these do exist, the government is open to a number of
types of corruption. (Read
more...)
Corruption-prone Areas
Current: The primary victim of
corruption is the society itself. Graft affects us all by
undermining the rule of law, erroding fairness, violating human
rights, facilitating organised crime and detering foreign
investment.
The first step for prevention is to
identify corruption-prone areas. The past ICAC cases reveal that
the following areas are vulnerable to corruption that, left
unchecked, can have dire consequences. (Read
more...)
Corruption Awareness Tests
Fighting Corruption: Perspectives from AccountAbility
SEPTEMBER 2007: Steve Rochlin says
many companies are starting to tackle corruption, though they face
obstacles such as the free rider problem and variations in the
cultural acceptability of corruption. He gives examples of how a
more dynamic conception of accountability emerges when an
organization sets expectations with a broader range of
stakeholders: industry-wide, in local communities, and with the
public sector. (Listen
to audio)
Fighting Corruption: Perspectives from Lockheed Martin
SEPTEMBER 2007: As a government
contractor, says Alice Eldrige, Lockheed Martin has traditionally
defined corruption as fraud, waste, and abuse. But as definitions
broaden and overlap with human resources, what is the best role for
ethics departments? She discusses Lockheed's code of conduct,
compliance training, and due diligence in acquisitions. (Listen
to audio)
Fighting Corruption: Perspectives from General Electric
SEPTEMBER 2007: Katy Choo discusses
the diverse challenges that General Electric faces as it moves into
emerging markets that are often corruption hotspots: improper
payments, conflicts of interest, and lack of segregation of duties.
GE relies on extensive leadership training and metrics to ensure
compliance among its employees and third parties. (Listen
to audio)
Fighting Corruption: Perspectives from the World Bank
SEPTEMBER 2007: Brian Levy discusses
the dilemmas of addressing corruption as a development
organization, saying the World Bank's primary mission is poverty
reduction. New community-driven funding projects produce quality
infrastructure and put developing countries more in the driver's
seat. (Listen
to audio)
Innovations in
Fighting Corruption
SEPTEMBER 2007: GPI's second Workshop
for Ethics and Business was held in New York City on September 19,
2007. The meeting of civil society and corporations, Innovations in
Fighting Corruption: What Works, What Doesn't, and Who Is
Accountable?, was co-sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton's
strategy+business magazine.
Matthew Hennessey authored the rapporteur's summary. (Read
more...)
Corruption in
a Developing Country Context
JULY 2007: Viewed in its broadest
sense, corruption is simply the misuse of public office or public
assets for private gains.
It is also the misuse of these assets
in a way that creates an unlevel playing field and that makes
people feel injustice has been done. Perhaps this is why the
average citizen in any country, in fact all of us, feel so badly
about corruption. (Read
more...)
Tackling Corruption
Developing countries need to take
ownership of the fight against corruption themselves as they can
least afford to be corrupt given their resource constraints.
A frontal assault on corruption
requires a comprehensive strategy as any piecemeal approaches may
only serve to re-direct corruption to other sectors of the economy.
(Read
more...)
This chapter argues that a lack of
progress in eradicating corruption in developing countries could be
the result of misguided strategies based on weak analytical
underpinnings and still weaker appreciation of the institutional
environments of individual developing countries. Public sector
corruption, as a symptom of failed governance, depends on a
multitude of factors, such as the quality of public sector
management, the nature of accountability relations between the
government and citizens, the legal framework, and the degree to
which public sector processes are accompanied by transparency and
dissemination of information. Efforts to address corruption that
fail to adequately account for these “drivers” are unlikely to
generate profound and sustainable results. (Read
more...)
Combating corruption in
Africa:
What can donors do?
MAY 2007: The Report of the
Commission for Africa (CFA, 2005) diagnosed poor governance as the
single most significant developmental challenge besetting the
region. ‘Without progress in governance,’ it stressed, ‘all other
reforms will have limited impact.’ The report also identified
corruption as a central concern: the widespread prevalence of
corruption undermines efforts to improve governance, and yet
improved governance is essential to reduce the scope for corruption
to begin with. (Read
more...)
Corruption in Education systems in developing countries: What
it is doing to the young
Current: In my forty years working on
educational development and reform, I have taught school and walked
around Africa with no money; launched Uganda’s first five year plan
(and shared offices with Idi Amin ); helped pilot an education
reform in Thailand, whilst at the same time working for human
rights, and training in non violent action; and spent six years in
a remote corner of Nepal designing and implementing a Ghandian type
development program through action oriented education. I have
joined Jerry Rawlings’ revolutionary spirit in Ghana only to see it
captured by middle class respectability; fought corruption in
Cameroon; and cried as the Ethiopian Government saw the destruction
of its neighbour as more important than the feeding of its starving
people. (Read
more...)
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