Fighting Public Corruption

Sep 18, 2011 Editorial

We return once again to the vexed subject of public corruption dealt with in two parts only a month ago in ‘Investigating Corruption’. Our revelations on the latest outrage on the public purse – the $69 million NIS Berbice Office wonder – forces us to go one step up from the investigation to the environment in which the corruption flourishes.
We may have to repeat this topic with even greater frequently since it is only when the public becomes outraged and takes a stand about how their money is spent, will there be any effective action taken.
Basically, public corruption can be described as the misuse of public office for private gain. In practical terms, we elect or appoint individuals to public office where they are paid to perform tasks in the public interests. The individuals, through one scheme or another, collect both their salaries and fees (also called ‘rents’) for performing their functions. It tends to thrive when discretionary power is vested in officials – a feature that is inevitable in all offices, but can always be tightened – within an overarching weak system of deterrence. Meaning that for one reason or another – higher official negligence or connivance – the officials have no fear of being caught and punished.
While public corruption is endemic in all societies – human venality being a universal condition – today it is particularly virulent in the developing world where they have not had the long experience in confronting the phenomenon as the developed world.
Officials that top the list in the corruption sweepstakes are politicians, bureaucrats, and other officials taking bribes to influence outcomes in business licensing, awarding contracts, registering property, citing traffic violations, disbursing education funds, and so on. The international non-governmental organisation Transparency International issues annual reports on the perception of corruption in countries: last year Guyana ranked 116 out of 178 countries.
One of the points that have been stressed in recent studies on corruption across the globe, is that the scope for corruption rose dramatically in the wake of the neo-liberal reforms pushed by the World Bank/IMF since the 1980’s. The state was forced to transfer vast swathes of public assets to private firms—such as land – agricultural and developmental, factories, banks etc —usually under weak regulatory, supervisory, and legal frameworks.
For instance, the privatisation of the telephone company was said to be very suspect. But even where the public entity like GuySuCo was not privatised, the climate encouraged the privatisation of most of its functions such as tillage which provided the opportunity for continuous corruption. Then also, as developing countries try to become developed nations they are learning the tricks of the (corruption) game: bribery turns into another means of influence – lobbying, which is accepted as legal.
Corruption has a very insidious effect on any society because it quickly metastasises and acts to corrode it from within. Public funds, which ultimately come from the pocket of the citizens of the country, end up in the pockets of private individuals.
Typically in the Third World these are not entrepreneurs that reinvest the funds that might spur development but transfer them to secret bank accounts in the developed world. Additionally, in the case of contractors that skim off the top of projects and split the excess proceeds with bureaucrats or/and politicians, the projects are invariably substandard or deficient and value for money is never received.
Higher corruption rates also reduce entrepreneurial activity since some contractors are squeezed out in favour of those that pay bribes. The lack of competition has a further negative effect since there is no incentive for the favoured contractor to be efficient. Then there is the insidious role that corruption performs in the allocation of talent, since this is not the criteria for winning contracts.
Efficiency inevitably suffers. Corruption clearly worsens social services integral to human development, for the providers always cut corners. Finally, public corruption also eats away at social institutions, undermines the rule of law, erodes social trust, and can jeopardize public safety and hurt the environment.
Is anyone out there listening?

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