Corruption pertains to the intentional misuse of a public position by a legally appointed individual for his own personal benefit (World Bank, 1997).
This action is thus associated with the illegal actions of government officials, as well as government employees, specifically the redirecting of public funds and assets that are owned by the government to these individuals. The diversion of government funds thus results in a significant decrease in the resources for government-run activities and operations and consequently, the performance of particular government agencies are affected, resulting in poor or substandard performance (Mauro, 1997). The factors influencing the onset of corruption vary from one country to another, yet there are a number of features that are commonly observed in countries where corruption has been reported to be rampant.
One of the major causes of corruption in a country is the poor design of policies and laws that are being implemented by the government. One specific example is the large gap between income levels of the citizens of a particular government, wherein society is composed of two major income groups, the high-income and the poor. Another specific example of a factor influencing the exercise of corruption in a country is the poor methods for transparency of the government.
Unfortunately, corruption is strongly correlated in a society that accepts such unlawful behavior of government employees and the public willfully provides bribes in order to get an action completed by a specific government official or public servant. Moreover, the public officials are not personally concerned in serving their country and are simply working hard in order to amass funds for their own personal benefit. It should also be understood that in a corrupt government, public officials do not realize that their major responsibility is to serve the public and thus there should be new laws and policies that the government must implement in order to prevent further diversion of public funds.
Another factor that influences corruption in a government is the insufficiency or even absence of government action whenever a report is submitted regarding a direction of government assets to a public official. It is thus important that anti-corruption programs be created within the government so that any public servant who performs an illegal act of rerouting government funds be caught and proper penalties be imposed on this individual.
Corruption may be observed in a country at different levels. In the simplest terms, providing money to a public servant for the speedy processing of a driver’s license is a bribery that can serve as legal evidence for corruption within the government. The selective rate of processing of government documents based on the monetary reward to a public servant may reflect how the entire system works, wherein almost all activities are thus strongly linked to an exchange of money or any other form of asset between a public servant and a member of society in order to complete a particular task.
It is unfortunate that corruption often affects developing countries and that any corrupt activity in the developed countries is quickly called to attention and investigation. In the developing countries, there are negligible reports of outright corrupt acts in the government, mostly due to fear that these whistleblowers would be killed for calling the attention of anti-corruption officials. In case an investigation is conducted in a developing country, the outcome is usually distorted due to the bribery that is also occurring during the investigation of the case.
References
- Mauro P (1997): Why worry about corruption? Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund.
- World Bank (1997): Helping countries combat corruption: The role of the World Bank, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network.