Institutionalised Corruption

Most days, we hear the word 'institutionalised' in different contexts  usually to deprecate the reputation of the government. Unlike  in military regime, or dictatorships, in most democratic countries, the government is run by a political party or coalition of parties. This means that successive political parties do not endeavour to eradicate the ‘institutionalised bias’ in their tenure. In this blog, I would like to look into various aspects of institutionalised corruption rather than institutionalised racism.  

Institutionalised corruption is a systemic and strategic influence, that undermines the institution’s effectiveness to achieve its purpose by weakening the public’s trust in that institution. Corruption is dishonest behaviour by those in positions in all government levels. Corruption can include giving and accepting bribes,holidays, inappropriate gifts, double dealings, under the table transactions, manipulating elections,diverting fund,laundering money and defrauding investors. Let me put that in context by quoting military procurement in democratic countries.The armed forces require certain supplies, the seller puts an inflated price to accommodate for the kickback for the agent of the political party in government. The political party uses the money for next general election.  

Kleptocracy means “rule by the thieves”  in which the ruling government seeks personal gain and position at the expense of the governed, otherwise called ‘ poacher turned game keeper’. Graft  is a form of political corruption, being the unscrupulous use of a politician's authority for personal gain. Similarly, political graft occurs when funds intended for public projects are intentionally misdirected in order to maximize the benefits to private interests.   Institutionalised corruption is associated with higher levels of bureaucracy, greed of money, higher level of market or political monopolization, low level of democracy, weak civil participation, low political transparency, low human rights  and low press freedom. Government corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary, but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence peddling, graft, and embezzlement.   

It is not just in the third world countries cronyism is practised. We remember, how the son in law and other immediate relatives were in the corridor of power when Trump was the US president. This cronyism matters, as the reputation of the country is affected abroad.Corruption erodes the trust we have in the public sector to act in our best interests. It also wastes our taxes or rates that have been earmarked for important community projects. This means we have to put up with poor quality of services or infrastructure, or we miss out altogether.  

I shall cite an example how institutionalised corruption affects quality of service and infrastructure in the state of Kerala, India. In India, the executive head of the state government is the chief minister. His chief secretary hired an unqualified tainted lady to supervise various international governmental activities. She then involved in highly sophisticated gold smuggling racket and money laundering. The donation received for humanitarian purpose from abroad was partly siphoned, resulting in constructing with reduced fund. The same government employs under qualified candidates from their party or those who pay bribes to the party, creating inefficient government work force. At the same time, the government deceives the most eligible candidates, creating unfairness and resentment in the community on these back door appointments. Unfortunately the highly literate people of Kerala who are aware of such embezzlement, look forward to re-elect the same government!

Corruption increases income inequality and poverty through lower economic growth, biased tax systems favouring the rich and well-connected, poor targeting of social programmes, use of wealth by the well-to-do to lobby government for favourable policies that perpetuate inequality in asset ownership. Lobbying the political party in power is equivalent to lobbying the government. This has a severe devastating effect on the welfare of the people. For example lobbying by the confectionery industry on regulations on high sugar diet and drinks, can cause obesity and other public health disorders. Financing of US presidential election by the gun lobby results in insecurity and high gun related mortality.    

 In Nigeria, we used to joke that we have to bribe even the pillar. I have heard stories of Nigerian Customs officer teaching a client how to bribe when it was safe. In Nigeria, corruption is in every walk of life,stifles economic growth, reduces economic efficiency and development despite the enormous  oil and other resources in Nigeria . Corruption creates a negative national image and loss of much needed revenue. One of the reasons for Nigerian currency to devalue immensely was due to their institutionalised corruption ( 1$= 409 Naira today, 1$ = 1.55 Naira in 1977). Transparency  and accountability in countries like Singapore, helped their economy to tremendously outperform.  In corrupt countries, Institutionalised corruption will have its roots in every department of the government. Environmental catastrophes and extinction of species are more common in institutionalised corrupt countries.

Corruption in the judicial sector damages the right to a fair trial, as corruption erodes the independence, impartiality, and integrity of the judiciary. The lack of independence of judges, prosecutors and lawyers directly harms the right to a fair trial.  Weak governance promotes organised crimes, human trafficking, drug smuggling, and counterfeiting.   Although there are laws, the enforcing authorities are seldom interested in enforcing them. Take the example of property sales and registration in India. The registrar takes a percentage of the sale value as bribe, allowing the buyer and seller to substantially reduce the written sale price on the documents, but buyer pays the balance of agreed price in cash!. This is the  origin for black money, purchasing power for certain people and creating a parallel economy. The registrar being a government employee, cheats the government through assisting tax avoidance. The government loses, capital gain tax and stamp duty, because of the corrupt registrar. The shortfall in tax collection needs to be recovered somehow for which the treasury borrows even more or delays developments or increases tax for the lower income tax payers. These rotten property transactions are practised even by religious heads, who preach “give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God.”(Luke  20:25).

 In the league of most institutionally corrupt countries, third world countries rank top. The most corrupt countries are dominated by the usual suspects, such as Somalia, South Sudan, North Korea, Syria,Yemen, Sudan, Libya, Afghanistan in a descending order. Most of them are in Africa and in war torn Asia. The inclusion of North Korea in that league symbolises how institutionalised corruption takes place  in a repressed and one man show country. The endemic nature of embezzlement and  the fruits of it make the law makers not to impose stringent penalty against the unlawful practice in vogue. Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, Sweden, Singapore and Switzerland are perceived as the top six least corrupt nations in the world, ranking consistently high among countries of international transparency and accountability.