Corruption and Culture - Part I

Saberi Roy -
2/26/2008

Corruption is not just the abuse of power for personal gain but also personal gain at the expense of others so it has moral, ethical, social, economic, political and broader geographical impact. Although some form of corruption has always existed in human society, the practice or culture of corruption has taken up gigantic forms since the 20th century. From politics to the corporate world, from entertainment to education corruption is a disease and a vice of organizational systems. Almost like cancer, corruption begins slowly and gradually permeates to affect the whole of society. Most people in the world tend to believe that the political systems are corrupt and may as well be the root of all corruption. According to the Transparency International’s (TI) Global Corruption Barometer 2007, the poor are the most affected by corruption, bribery is a common problem in South Asia and Eastern Europe and seems to have increased in recent times, and bribery is particular common in judiciary, police and registry services. The politicians, police and judiciary are considered as the most corrupt and most people believe that government attempts to fight corruption have been ineffective. The global approach to corruption can be tackled in three ways –

1. Political corruption and its links with poverty and poor regional development in countries of Africa and other developing nations

2. Economic corruption and its links with globalization, mass media and privatization in the developed world and also in some emerging economies

3. Judicial corruption and its links with technology, terrorism and transparency as an approach to understanding crime and illegal activities in Asia, Latin America, Africa and many developing nations.

Politics, Poverty and Corruption: In politics or administrative roles corruption is the abuse of power and corrupt individuals act directly against public interest so the perception of politicians as corrupt is justified considering that politicians are the most public faces of society and yet their political activities are the least transparent. This gap between public life and private wealth has in some cases simply highlighted the flaws in the political system and for that matter even the legal system so politicians could easily get around legal problems and still have their accumulated wealth intact in some foreign bank. The Indonesian president Suharto had allegedly accumulated billions in foreign banks and so had Philippines president Marcos. Corruption is rampant in Africa as well and Swiss banks have estimated nearly 400 billion dollars held by heads of African states. Considering the challenges that Africa face to provide basic needs to its people, this severe corruption seems to be the foremost problem in Africa. Yet there seems to be very little that is done about it. Africa’s economic growth seems to have been relatively steady in the last few years with major growth of foreign direct investment, although there has been a limited effect on poverty reduction. Yet when media or analysts talk of starvation and poverty problems in Africa, the rampant corruption is not shown as an associated problem, corruption is only tackled separately. What we really have to do is highlight the link between corruption and poverty in Africa and develop strict monitoring of African governance, possibly through the UN or any other international organization. Although political corruption is found in many parts of the world, the adverse effect is the strongest in Africa because of the sheer magnitude of political corruption as placed alongside the widespread poverty, starvation and lack of basic needs of the people in the region.

Economy, Globalization and Corruption: If the problem of political corruption is the root of slow development of African regions, liberalization seems to have hit the global economy in good and bad ways and would be the cause of widespread corporate corruption across the developed world. Public contracting and implementation of public policies are meant to produce goods and services for the benefit of citizens. In most countries, such contracts between the government and the public companies can be fertile grounds of corruption and can lead to not just poor quality services for the public but also puts a strain on government resources. Although public contracting seems to be a regional problem in the developing and developed countries, it finally affects the wider economy. The large scale impact of contracting is through globalization which is actually the dominance of a few companies in all regions of the world. Globalization and the resulting spread of American companies throughout the world may be just beginning to show its real impact with wealth getting more and more concentrated in the hands of large global players rather than being distributed equally. Some however see globalization as an offshoot of democracy, free trade policy and neo-liberalism is something that was bound to happen, globalization seems to have brought the world closer improved communication and eliminated gaps between the developed and developing economies. But of course, like everything else there are two sides to this story and the control of the global economy by a few companies maybe not just widening the gap between the rich and the poor but also opening up newer routes of corruption. The multinational companies are bigger than governments and in many cases the governments seem to be acting as passive facilitators for these big businesses. One way this helps in the development of infrastructure in developing regions and on the other hand, increases widespread corrupt practices. The lure of privatization is hard to avoid yet with private companies commanding power through money, money laundering and corrupt stock market practices are easily associated with globalization and government approved trading. The IMF and World Trade Organization seem to be not doing enough to stop the corrupt practices of multinational companies and financial institutions as these practices are easily shown as aspects of legitimate businesses. There’s always a back door and an escape route and with information technology and communication systems having changed trade and businesses, it is easy to swiftly vanish illegal money through electronic transactions. Monitoring world businesses and trading patterns is absolutely necessary to establish fair play in a more advantageous form of globalization. The link between economy, globalization and corruption seems to be the major vice of the developed nations and any slowdown of economy would demand a scrutiny of business and trading practices, although like political corruption and poverty, the association between corruption, globalization and a weak economy is always overlooked.

Judiciary, Technology and Corruption: With political corruption widespread in Africa and developing nations and economic corruption found across the developed world, the judiciary and law enforcement agencies are seen as becoming increasingly corrupt in Asian regions and other developing nations. In a global era of terrorism, it is important to understand the adverse impact of a corrupt judicial system that is unable to tackle crime effectively. Judicial corruption in the form of bribery or illegal practices and ‘getting around the law’ undermines the basic tenets of democracy and facilitates malpractice across different sectors of governance and society. What should be highlighted here is the need to promote greater judicial transparency and accountability. Increasing public knowledge about the judicial system in terms of its practices and disciplinary processes and computerization of the judicial systems with an open and accessible working environment are necessary. Computerized case tracking and public access to judicial information through published cases and stored databases help increase the accountability of judicial process and legal systems, decisions and practices. According to Transparency International (TI), the recommendations for increasing judicial transparency are through annual reports and access to information, asset disclosures, fair legal commentary and judicial reform. All these measures seem to highlight the importance of using technology to make the judiciary more public and transparent. Technology remains as the main tool for enhancing the public face of the judiciary and even technology can be used to track crime, illegal deals and aid in making judicial decisions quickly. The judicial system is largely complex with too many laws and clauses and the simplification of the judicial system is only possible with the use of technology. Advanced case management systems could improve court administration and the general efficiency of the courts and although many of these reforms are being implemented and some are already in place in developed nations, this is not so in developing countries and in many regions the judiciary is not completely computerized and there is absolutely no transparency or public access to information. The problem of bribery is thus naturally phenomenal in the judicial systems of developing countries. The police and judiciary are most likely to demand bribes with bribery being a huge problem in Africa, Asia and Latin America (Source: TI). Countries which are torn by conflict or have terrorist bases such as Pakistan, Afganistan, Albania, Kosovo, Nigeria have very high levels of corruption in the judiciary. It goes without saying that a corrupt judicial system is not just harmful economically but also extremely dangerous in terms of security of developed and developing regions alike. In an increasingly connected world, flawed or corrupt legal system in one small nation can have a deep impact on the rest of the world. The International Court of Justice and such governing bodies as also the media should focus on the roots of judicial problems and focus on improving transparency through improved technology. The link between judicial corruption, terrorism and technology is not highlighted significantly and it is high time and we perceive these links as absolutely important.