Bribery and corruption

 

Bribery and corruption in the public sector, is endemic and unavoidable in all societies

Bribery and corruption

Bribery and corruption in the public sector is one of the major challenges that many governments face across the world. Corruption is engaging in activities such as looting of public funds through falsification of documents. Corruption is a crime in many countries and any people caught or corporate involved in it are required to face persecution (Campante, Chor & Do 2009, p. 42). Bribery on the other hand involves taking money or doing something to get favors. Both bribery and corruption are a threat to the economy and are a manifestation that something is in a mess. This paper delineates on the aspects of bribery and corruption and investigates whether it is endemic and unavoidable in all the societies.

Even though seem bribery and corruption endemic and unavoidable, some public entities and corporations have managed to reduce the prevalence. This therefore, indicates that if appropriate strategies are adopted then this is a problem that can be easily managed and avoided. According to the Transparency International Bribe Payers index, 2002 reported high rates of bribery practices in industries such as public works, oil and gas and arms and defense. This is because once bribery becomes a norm in a specific industry, is when it is perpetrated (Dhami & Al-Nowaihi 2007, p. 727).  Good corporate governance is a prerequisite to reduction of corruption is the problem of coordination and principal agent problem are addressed. Principles of good corporate governance such as accountability and transparency are vital not only in addressing the operative performance of an entity but also in reducing the level of corruption.  Accountability imposes constraints on the corrupt official and the corruptors and in the long run stem out the malpractice. Public officials require to be accountable and to remain transparent by allowing external auditors to audit their financial books (Hess 2009, p. 781). The public officials should also be people with high level of integrity to ensure that they are not easily persuaded to engage in bribes and corruption. They need to perform their duties with diligent and honesty.

Corruption will be lower in countries that have accountable corporate boards. When the corporate boards are accountable to the shareholders incidences of bribery is deemed to reduce.  Consequently, these members should be competent and need to represent the interest of the shareholders. The boards need to be stronger to make it credible for the managers to commit to a ‘no bribe’ policy when handling or dealing with public officials that demand a bribe (Maiden 2013, p. 4). This strong board also helps to deter extortion demands from corrupt officials by increasing the risks that they should face. This is because the chance of whistle blowing from the insiders will have increased.

Putting in place higher standards for accounting information reporting is essential among the public sector to curb or to reduce the level of corruption. This will increase the probability of    detecting instances or bribery acts. When there are better accounting practices in place, they help to monitor the information and the activities of the principals and agents effectively. With high accounting, standards public or corporate officials engaged in corruption will find it had to hide bribe payments and will have to face the wrath of the law. The rules and regulations regarding accounting information reporting and disclosure should be strengthened to help in fortifying the internal control and monitoring system in the firm or public entity (Wu 2005, p. 159).

The strengthening and reforming of corporate governance in many countries is a reality that indeed corruption is rife in various countries. US and Britain are not an exemption regardless of the fact that they are powerful economies in the world. Some of the corporate in US that have faced corruption scandals include, Enron, Tyco, Worldcom and many others. The major reason of high rate of escalation of corruption is the poor management.  Public entities and corporations are governed by corrupt individuals and misuse the public office instead of using the opportunity to serve the people.

According to Owen (2013) the increasing and creeping levels of corruption in Britain has increased the rate of bribery among the public officials. Among 20 people, one paid a bribe in order to access public services such as education, health services and even justice (Owen 2013, para. 2).    Two thirds of the British people stated that in the last two years, the level of corruption has increased. These findings are from transparency international that carried out its survey across the world involving 114,000 individuals in 107 countries. Going by this statistics it reminiscent that indeed, bribery and corruption is endemic and is something that requires efforts to eradicate it.

Because it is the public sector that is essential in providing services to the people. Different countries in UK and US included have put in place different measures to help curb the menace.  One of the strategies that these countries have put in place to set up strict laws that   requires that those public officials that  are  caught stealing or engaging in any instances of bribes and corruption are persecuted. Such officials are required to resign from their offices and taken to the court of laws to answer to the charges. Some of the consequences or penalties are severe such as facing a life jail in prison.  These laws have been passed and are part of the constitution. This is one way of ensuring that the public officials remain honest as they continue to serve the members of the public.  Furthermore, those, appointed to such offices are people who have a high level of integrity and their record of accomplishment is void of any corruption allegation. This is achieved by investigating the individuals thoroughly. They have also put in place systems in place to ensure that instances of corruption reduce. The government has also helped to a greater degree in sealing any loopholes that would allow people to engage in corruption (Brasoveanu et al. 2013, p. 167). The governments have ensured that the levels of people that are out of employment is low and this ensures that people are satisfied with what they have and therefore, it becomes hard to engage in corruption. The members of the public are also aware that corruption and giving bribes is wrong and must then shun away from these practices.

There are also improved accounting standards in place that every public sector is required to comply with. All public expenses and incomes must be accounted for. External auditors need to audit the financial books or records, authenticate any likelihood of misappropriation of public funds. This strategy has helped to greater level in reducing the prevalence of corruption in high offices. With the development of technology, most of the governments are embracing e-government whereby they offer services to the members of the public through the internet (Ionescu 2013, p. 210). This is a stride towards reduction of corruption in the public sector. Even though this may not stamp out corruption entirely, it has helped to greater heights in reducing the levels. When public services are provided through the internet it reduce the interaction between the client and a public official hence eliminates the aspects of asking for bribes (Xhafo 2013, p. 84).   The other advantages of adopting e-government in servicing the public in public sector are that it facilitates preventive checks and ongoing investigation of corrupt acts.  Therefore, the mechanism behind using e-government in fighting corruption is reduction in uncertainty. Whistle blowing is also a common strategy used to fight corruption in these countries and others across the world.  People are required to pass information to relevant authorities established about incidences of corruption and bribery for an action to be taken.

Efforts have been made to raise awareness and to stamp out bribery and corruption in both public and private sector but there are still many cases of corruption.  Initiatives to raise awareness and encouragement to enforce criminal laws against corruption have been done.  This however seems not to have triggered positive change as many company officials still complain that they loss contracts because of bribery and paying of bribes by their competitors. Such surveys demonstrate intractable nature of corruption that has made many people to hold to the view that corruption is universally disapproved but universally prevalent. This is consistent with the fact that corruption has remained endemic and unavoidable in the society. Even with this state of corruption, not all is lost, there is still hope that corruption can be stamped out. This however will need tripartite attacks that involve the private sector, public sector and the civil society.

 

Reference list

Basheka, B 2011, ‘Economic and political determinants of public procurement corruption in         developing countries: an empirical study from Uganda,’ Journal of Public Procurement,          Vol. 11 no. 1, pp. 33-60.

Brasoveanu, I et al. 2013, ‘Public sector influences in the development of underground economy and corruption in Romania, in EU context,’ Economic Computation & Economic       Cybernetics Studies & Research, Vol. 47 no. 1, pp. 167-184.

Campante, F, Chor, D & Do, Q 2009, ‘Instability and the incentives for corruption,’ Economics   & Politics, Vol. 21 no. 1, pp. 42-92.

Dhami, S, & Al-Nowaihi, A 2007, ‘Corruption and the Provision of Public Output in a      Hierarchical Asymmetric Information Relationship,’ Journal of Public Economic Theory,       Vol. 9 no.  4, pp. 727-755.

Hess, D 2009, ‘Catalyzing Corporate Commitment to Combating Corruption,’ Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 88, pp. 781-790.

Ionescu,  L 2013, ‘The impact that e-government can have on reducing corruption and enhancing             transparency,’ Economics, Management & Financial Markets, Vol. 8 no. 2, pp. 210-215.

Maiden, B 2013, ‘Fighting Corruption: Yes We Can?’ Compliance Reporter. 7/26/2013, p. 4

Xhafo, J 2013, ‘Some issues on anticorruption legal reform in public administration,’         International Journal of Management Case, Vol. 15 no. 3, pp. 84-97.

Owen, J 2013, ‘Britain’s bribery boom: One in 20 has bribed a public official as corruption rises.   Retrieved from: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/britains-bribery-           boom-one-in-20-has-bribed-a-public-official-as-corruption-rises-8696181.html

Wu, X 2005, ‘Corporate Governance and Corruption: A Cross-Country Analysis,’ Governance,    Vol. 18 no. 2, pp. 151-170.

 

 

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