Many of us tend to
adopt a simplistic view of corruption.
We tend to see corruption as a mere transaction that involves people who
illegally enrich themselves by taking bribes or kickbacks and others who pay
the bribes voluntarily for some bigger benefits or because they are compelled
to do so.
Corruption in this
case is reduced to a transaction between two parties and third parties (i.e.,
the public at large) who are not involved in this transaction are often tempted
to adopt either of two stands or a combination of both: (a) they acknowledge the immorality or
illegality of the transaction; (b) they are indifferent to it because they are
not personally involved. In any case,
they do not think there is much they can do about corruption.
This article tries to
establish that corruption involves more than a simple illegal transaction
– it has a significant long-term
pernicious impact on ALL of us.We thus
cannot afford to remain indifferent to this curse. Some of the direct and indirect implications
of corruption are discussed below.
Readers may decide for themselves whether and to what extent they are
applicable to the Mauritian situation.
Substandard products and services
Someone who has taken
a bribe or a kick back from a supplier or a contractor is more likely to be
less critical of the quality of the product or services being offered. This poor quality may later result in injury
and/or death of innocent people. After
all, the supplier will need to absorb the amount paid as bribe and one way to
do this is to compromise on the quality offered. This can also include delays in
delivery. One often sees infrastructure
works that last excessively long causing excessive inconvenience to the public.
Increased prices and poor public service
Suppliers and
contractors sometimes increase their prices to include the bribe being
paid. Given that that the person being
bribed is less likely to negotiate too hard, some suppliers may charge
excessively high prices and again it is the public that ends up paying the extra costs. Corruption becomes an indirect means that
some individuals in positions of power use to steal tax payers’ money, our
money. We ALL pay VAT which represents
the largest revenue of the state.
This has other
indirect consequences – the fact that public funds are being siphoned away
means that there will be less available to ensure the smooth running of
essential services like health and education and in a decent salary for
doctors, nurses, teachers and policemen and / or proper maintenance of public
infrastructure. The problem of poor
services is exacerbated by the appointment the incompetent and undeserving
people at various levels – another form of corruption.
Finally, price
increases by suppliers and contractors often result in higher public debt that
will have to be paid back by future generations. All these indirect consequences have a
significant long-term negative impact on public welfare.
Negative impact on the ecosystem
Concessions are often
granted to local parties or more often to multinationals to enable them to
exploit the natural resources of the country.
Examples would include activities like mining, fishing, state lands for
development, or exploitation of forests.
These concessions are often granted against relatively low payments to
the state while the difference is often pocketed by individuals involved in the
decisions and/or in the granting of relevant permits. This often represents a significant shortfall
for the state and thus reduced funds available for state expenditure with
consequences similar to those discussed in Section 3 above.
More importantly, the
fact that bribes have been paid and received often results in over-exploitation
of the natural resources which remains unchecked, large-scale destruction of
the natural environment, sudden displacement of local populations from areas
they have occupied for generations or excessive pollution. Readers would already be familiar with
numerous such examples. Again it is the
public at large that pays a very high price, and that too for many years, for
the corrupt practices of a few individuals.
Weakening of democratic institutions
Many of the
individuals who benefit from corruption are often in positions of power or
close to people in power. These
individuals tend to use a portion of the proceeds of corruption to retain power
or help those close to them to remain in power so that they may continue to
indulge in / benefit from the corrupt
practices without any restraint - thus closing the vicious cycle of corruption
and indirectly perpetuating corruption.
One common way to retain power is to directly or indirectly buy votes by
bribing voters, (e.g., by paying their utility bills on the eve of
elections).
Other practices
include lavish spending during pre-election rallies, banners and other
communication tools, and entertainment for potential supporters. This lavish expenditure is often financed by
a part of the kickbacks accumulated by politicians in the years preceding the
elections (it should be noted that the
bulk of the kickbacks are often stashed in foreign banks), or by large
political donations that are nothing less than advance kickbacks – these local
or international donors would subsequently be rewarded by jobs that they may
not deserve or contracts that would either be over-priced and/or be associated
with substandard products or services (as discussed in Section 2 above).
Conclusion
It is clear from the
discussion above that if we adopt a systemic view of the situation we would
realize that corruption is more than just a simple transaction between two
individuals resulting in the illegal enrichment of one or both of them. It has far-reaching social, economic,
environmental and political implications.
It involves long-term costs to society at large, to the eco-system, and
in extreme cases, it may even result in loss of innocent lives. If the above premise is correct, it would be
criminal on our part to be indifferent to the curse of corruption. It is also clear that the solution would not
reside in sporadic actions that only address the relatively insignificant
symptoms of the problem while neglecting the systemic dimension and the root
causes like those discussed above.
The vicious cycle of corruption
Article published in Le Mauricien on 16 May, 2013
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