Corruption

A young boy in India rushes his mother to hospital. As she is being transferred to the ward the boy requests the worker to handle his mother carefully. The worker retorts and says: ‘You take care of me first; I will take care of your mother after that’. The above real life incident took place some 15 odd years ago. Maybe it was a different time then but corruption is an ongoing problem in India. The numerous corruption scandals that make the headlines and flicker on small screens make this evident. Corruption is a global problem that knows no borders and it affects all strata of society. It could be said that it is the only omnipresent factor. So present in our everyday life we have stopped noticing it.

Be it in education, healthcare, the justice system or in bureaucracy corruption pervades in every nook and corner of our lives. Corruption is a misuse of public power to ones’ own private gain.

Transparency International and the World Bank see in corruption the biggest hurdle to achieving development and fighting poverty. The resources given by these organizations are wasted by greedy politicians and the recipients in the particular countries never see the daylight of their country’s assets. The World Bank places the losses incurred by corruption at 12 % of the world GDP. The list of politicians, presidents and prime-ministers misappropriating public money, while their people suffer, is endless.

Corruption deters lasting development because it leads to the fact that public funds are never present and public resources are wasted. Corruption also restrains the political, the economic and social development of a country. According to Transparency international (TI) the economic damage is estimated at 4 % of the worldwide economic performance. Moreover, corruption leads to human rights violations in many countries. Vital resources such as water and food are available at very high prices and access to basic needs like education and health care is made difficult or even possible. Matters are made worse by the fact that the corrupted judiciary turns a blind eye to the rule of law.

Although corruption is a worldwide threat there is a difference in levels corruption between rich and poor nations. According to a study of Transparency International, 20 % of interviewed households in the Asia and Pacific region and Africa pay bribes when interacting with members of the judicial system. In contrast to this, „only“ 2 % of interviewed households in western countries and the EU pay bribes. Especially vulnerable to corruption are crisis-ridden countries like Somalia, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sudan and Iraq (tie) as well as countries rich of resources such as Cameroon.
Singapore, Denmark and New Zealand were seen as the least corrupt countries in the list based on surveys of Transparency International (see Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index).

The five most corrupt countries:
1. Somalia
2. Afghanistan
3. Myanmar
4. Sudan
5. Iraq (tie)

The five least corrupt countries:
1. New Zealand
2. Denmark
3. Singapore
4. Sweden (tie)
5. Switzerland

Corruption is widespread in India and has become a big threat in the last years. India is ranked 84 out of a 180 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index  as well in  „Global Corruption Report 2009“ and stands far behind Brazil, China or Mexico. According to a study of Transparency International India and the Centre for Media Study (CMS) from 2008 between November 2007-Januar 2008 Indian households paid on average 8,830 million Rupees (212 million US Dollars) as bribes for basic civic facilities such as water, education and healthcare.

Corruption has world-wide causes and above all corruption conducted by high-ranking politicians and officials in economically weak countries has an international dimension. Bribes often come from multinational companies situated in the richest countries in the world. For example, Siemens has been accused of having paid 10 million euro as bribes to Nigerian cabinet members in the years 2001-2004. According to TI, Nigeria belongs to the 35 most corrupt nations in the world.

At the same time tardy administrative systems, ineffective financial organization and above all lack of transparency in manz countries set the ground for corruption. In Peru it can take up to 289 days to legally create a small business. The official licensing procedure for a building of a house can take up to six years. Moreover, one must consult with an official authority up to 28 times, to obtain a property document. Bribes have thus become the only and common means of accelerating these slow-acting administrative machineries or to make sure that the very often under-paid personnel in the government service performs his duty. Governments that prevent the freedom of expression and the liberty of the press like in the case of Zimbabwe or countries like Honduras and Italy that meekly accept and tolerate the concentration of media power in the hands of individual favour corruption additionally, lest alone fight it.

Let's take another example in India: We go gung ho about saving our forests and wild animals but we have a hundred ministers who are supposed to be responsible for the same. The trackers, foresters and other workers are not just underpaid but they do not receive their salaries in time. The millions of rupees that the government spends to preserve trees and to maintain parks seems to never see daylight. This often results in the forest officials turning a blind eye, passing the buck or blaming another government department whenever there is an elephant death due to electrification or a tiger death by poisoning. We need to use the RTI (Right to Information Act) to make sure the people responsible have to answer uneasy questions pertaining to their inertia and their duty.

“Corruption is a 10 headed monster which cannot be fought the same time” said Rigoberto Cuellar, the coordinator of anti-corruption drive in Honduras. We in India can understand this as the monster Ravana whose heads have to be dealt with one by one.

The probably most effective means in fighting against corruption is to improve transparency in all spheres of government action. Free and independent media make an important contribution in the fight against corruption. NGOs like Transparency international (TI), which rank among the prominent global organizations in the fight against corruption, strive for this cause. TI publishes each year a corruption report in which counties are listed according to their corruption perception index (=the degree of the corruption felt with office-holders and politicians).

Among the international anti-corruption efforts are also present conventions against corruption like the OECD convention. It places the bribery of foreign office-holders under punishment. Another example is the UN-convention (UNCAC - UN-convention against Corruption) which calls upon governments to place bribery and corruption under punishment.

OECD, Fighting Corruption.
The Hindu (2008), BPL households worst hit by corruption.
The World Bank, Anticorruption.
Transparency International India.
Transparency International, Global Corruption Barometer 2009.
Transparency International, Global Corruption Report 2009.