A MONSTER CALLED CORUPTION

Definition of corruption:

Corruption has been defined in many different ways each lacking in some aspect a few years ago the question of definition absorbed a large proportion of the time spent on discussions of corruption at conferences and meetings however like an elephant even though it may be difficult to describe it is generally not difficult to recognize when observed in most cases though not all different observers would agree on whether a particular behavior concludes corruption unfortunately the behavior is often difficult to observe directly because typically acts of corruption do not take place in broad daylight the most popular and simplest definitions of corruption is that it is the abuse of public power for private benefit.?

This is the definition use by the world bank from this definition it should not be concluded that corruption cannot exist within private sector activities especially in large private enterprises this phenomenon clearly exists as for example in procurement or even in hiring it also exists in private activities regulated by the government. and in several cases of corruption, the abuse of public power is not necessarily for one's private benefit but it can be for the benefit of one spotty class tribe friends or family and so on in fact in many countries some of the proceeds of corruption go to finance the political parties not all acts of corruption resorts in the payment of bribes for example a public employee who claims to be sick but goes on vacation is abusing his public position for personal use thus he is engaging in an act of corruption even though no pride is paid all the president of the country who has an airport built in his small hometown is also engaging in an act of corruption that does not involve the payment of a bribe.

Different types of corruption:

Acts of corruption can be classified in different categories some of these categories of mentioned below without specifically commenting on them all or even defining them. thus, corruption can be either in the private sector or in the public sector.

First, Corruption in the private sector:

Commercial bribery and kickbacks

These involve employees of one company giving payments, undue advantage or expensive gifts to employees of another company to secure an advantage. Examples include paying procurement staff to sway their decision in favor of the paying company, giving an expensive gift to a bank manager to secure a loan, and various forms of kickbacks.

Extortion and solicitation

This occurs when an employee of a company requests a payment, undue advantage, expensive gifts, or sexual favors in return for conducting specific business-related tasks or making particular decisions.

Gifts and hospitality

Excessive gifts and hospitality are given to employees to influence business decisions or tasks. This kind of gift might be travel, luxury items or tickets to sporting events.

Fees and commissions

Agents and intermediaries are paid fees and commissions beyond what is considered the industry standard, for the purpose of altering business decisions or tasks. Characterizing a payment as a fee or commission might be a way of disguising the payment of a bribe.

Collusion

This occurs when, for instance, a labor union employee and a member of the company's management team exchange favors that result in employees' interests not being accurately represented.

Trading of information

This happens when a business employee offers or receives a bribe in exchange for confidential information, where the bribe could take a number of different forms. When confidential information is the basis for trading in a company's stock, bonds or other securities, this constitutes an offence called "insider trading".

Trading in influence

Sometimes referred to as influence peddling, this activity occurs when a business employee gives payments, undue advantage or expensive gifts to a public official, expecting to receive an undue advantage from the public authority in return. An example is when business people make political donations with the intent of influencing political decisions, policies or laws.

Embezzlement

This happens when employees misappropriate anything of value that was entrusted to them because of their position.

Favouritism, nepotism, cronyism, clientelism

These forms of corruption occur when a person or group of persons are given unfair preferential treatment at the expense of others.

In Public sector:

All before-mentioned forms of corruption occur in the public sector, including bribery, embezzlement, illicit enrichment, trading in influence, and abuse of functions (which can involve favoritism and nepotism).?The precise legal articulation of corruption offences is complex. For example, article 15 of UNCAC defines bribery in the public sector as ‘the promise, offering or giving, to a public official, directly or indirectly, of an undue advantage, for the official himself or herself or another person or entity, in order that the official act or refrain from acting in the exercise of his or her official duties".

The same goes for embezzlement and misappropriation of property, defined as Beyond the complex legal formulation of the definition, the bottom line is that someone entrusted with something valuable (such as property, funds or investments) has taken it for him- or herself or routed it to some third party at the expense of others. It is, essentially, a combination of betrayal and theft.

Corruption manifests differently in different areas of the public sector. For example, corruption schemes in the areas of security and defense may include patronage and bribes to secure the purchase of military equipment from a particular company, which is a very famous face of corruption in African countries.

In the health sector it may refer to kickbacks that patients have to pay to their doctors or abuse of healthcare funds by public officials and doctors.

In the area of education, corruption occurs when lecturers demand favors from their students to pass an exam or to receive a diploma.

And also some schemes in the public sector appears also in the corrupted deals of public officials in which they take the resources that where dedicated for a certain public project and take them, and bribery also such as in the field of electricity and monetary banking and this is a huge phenomenon that caused the collapse of the Lebanese monetary system and may eventually lead to bankruptcy

All these schemes lead to people's frustration, disengagement, polarization and even conflict. When these corruption offences occur in the areas of the public sector that are responsible for providing justice and enforcing the law, such as the judiciary and the police, they are not only offences in their own right, they also obstruct the course of justice and undermine the rule of law and human rights in the most direct and fundamental way.

Corruption and Growth.

While there is a large consensus in the literature on the negative impact of corruption on economic growth, some researchers continue to argue that the effect of corruption on growth is context specific and associated with factors such as the country’s legal and institutional framework, quality of governance and political regime. They conclude that, in some highly regulated countries that do not have effective government institutions and governance systems, corruption can compensate for red tape and institutional weaknesses and “grease the wheels” of the economy. This argument does not stand up to scrutiny when looking at the long-term corrosive impact of corruption on economic growth, equality and the quality of a country’s governance and institutional environment. Evidence indicates that corruption is likely to adversely affect long-term economic growth through its impact on investment, taxation, public expenditures and human development. Corruption is also likely to undermine the regulatory environment and the efficiency of state institutions as rent-seeking distorts incentives and decision making processes. Not only does corruption affect economic development in terms of economic efficiency and growth, it also affects equitable distribution of resources across the population, increasing income inequalities, undermining the effectiveness of social welfare programs and ultimately resulting in lower levels of human development. This, in turn, may undermine long-term sustainable development, economic growth and equality.

Corruption as an obstacle to economic growth

At the macro level, the literature generally shows that corruption has a negative, direct impact on economic growth and development. Corruption also has an indirect effect on a country’s economic performance by affecting many factors fueling economic growth such as investment, taxation, level, composition and effectiveness of public expenditure. Economists have long identified a number of channels through which corruption may affect economic growth):

· Corruption distorts incentives and market forces, leading to misallocation of resources.

· Corruption diverts talent and resources, including human resources, towards “lucrative” rent-seeking activities, such as defense, rather than productive activities.

· Corruption acts as an inefficient tax on business, ultimately raising production costs and reducing the profitability of investments.

· Corruption may also decrease the productivity of investments by reducing the quality of resources. For example, by undermining the quality and quantity of health and education services, corruption decreases a country’s human capital.

· Rent-seeking behavior is also likely to create inefficiencies, fueling waste of resources and undermining the efficiency of public expenditure.

CORRUPTION AFFECTS INEQUALITY.

Not only does corruption affect economic development in terms of economic efficiency, it also has a distributional impact. While there is strong evidence of a negative correlation between corruption and the level of GDP per capita, some authors argue that such studies should also take into consideration indicators of social welfare and distribution of wealth. As early of 1998, an International Monetary Fund (IMF) working paper, based on cross-country regression analysis for 1980-97, establishes the considerable impact of corruption on income inequality, with a one standard deviation point increase in corruption resulting in an income reduction for the poor of 7.8 percentage points a year. The paper argues that corruption increases income inequality through lower economic growth, biased tax systems favoring the wealthy and well connected, lower levels and effectiveness of social spending, and unequal access to education and public services. In line with these views, some researchers further argue that research looking at growth in terms of GDP per capita is not enough, as sustainable growth and development is also related to the ability of a country to sustain living standards and social welfare over time. Using an indicator of “genuine wealth per capita” as a direct measure of sustainable development, he studies the relationship between corruption and sustainable development in a sample of 110 countries between 1996 and 2007 and finds that cross-national measures of perceived and experienced corruption significantly reduces growth in genuine wealth per capita, suggesting that corruption is a hindrance to sustainable development. Corruption is also positively correlated to income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient. Using panel data from African countries, a study finds that a one point increase in the corruption index is associated with a seven point increase in the Gini coefficient of income inequality. This holds true for developed countries. A study looking at the effect of corruption on income inequality and growth using data from US states finds robust evidence that an increase in corruption increases the Gini coefficient of income inequality and decreases income growth. This can be explained by the fact that the benefits from corruption are likely to flow to better connected individuals and groups who typically belong to higher income groups. Better connected individuals are more likely to get the most profitable government projects, undermining the government’s ability to ensure equitable distribution of resources. Research also finds that dependent variables measuring human development are negatively affected by corruption, with more-corrupt countries tending to have lower levels of human development. Transparency International’s Global Corruption Barometer’s data also indicate that the poor are disproportionally affected by corruption.

And everything that has been said can be determined in the current case of Lebanon where the random hiring of people without the bases of a clear characteristics, competence and other led to the lack of growth and led to the pragmatic and catastrophic economic crisis.

Fighting Corruption.

1. Avoid falling into the corruption trap: disclosing conflicts of interest and checking officials’ e-declarations

Is a public official breaking the conflict of interest rules when accepting invitations to dinners and galas held by business associations, or when helping his/her child get a government position, or when ensuring tenders are won by family members? The inbuilt problem of separating conflict of interest and corruption undermines the fundamental integrity of the government.

How activists can expose?corruption where they see it and disrupt the officials’ vested interests? Giving a cold-eyed look at officials’ e-declarations, checking out their lifestyles and analysing their hidden business interests prevents the unscrupulous from depriving people of quality public services and effectively distributed resources.

2. Where to find facts: harnessing open data and accessing public information to uncover corruption

There are 8 zettabytes of digital data existing in the world. How to use it in the fight against corruption and why data should be open? In a long-term perspective bringing benefits for both the government and citizens, open data allows free access to information for everyone and any time, stimulating greater public engagement, inclusive development, and innovations.

How to find information on a business related to an MP’s assistant? Who is sponsoring a political party? Do public officials live a luxurious lifestyle far beyond their earnings? Lots of data sets are open for anti-corruption watchdogs’ scrutiny – state budget and public expenditures, contracts and tenders, companies, MPs’ personal voting, court decisions, political parties’ financing, and asset declarations, just to name a few.

3. Decentralization and integrity: local communities eradicating corruption at the grassroots

How decentralization can minimize corruption risks? Instead of the top-down approach, amalgamated territorial communities are now in charge of shaping their budgets with a focus on local strategic priorities and ensuring public oversight over its implementation. To fight corruption on the ground, local communities are equipped with budget visualization and budgets’ transparency rankings, an updated repository of a community’s property, an electronic system for financial management, regular audit, public reporting, anti-corruption programs, conflict of interest prevention mechanisms, corruption proofing techniques, and many more.

4. Access to quality health care: how corruption plagues the sector

Is bearing doctors small gifts, flowers, sweets, or coffee a sign of gratitude or a bribe? Some patients and doctors argue such informal appreciations do not count. However, there is a very blurred line between bribes and expressions of gratitude. Corruption in the health sector reaches far beyond a bottle of cognac in exchange for prompt care it is a much bigger menace that plagues drug purchasing, charitable funds, diagnostic centers, privatization of hospital premises, and under-the-table payments to medical staff to get better and quicker treatment.

5. Want to win over your enemy, think like your enemy: exposing corruption schemes in public works

How to prevent a crooked city mayor from steeling the money allocated for the repair of roads, bridges, parks, or other infrastructure? It is important to understand the motivation of the unscrupulous through analyzing corruption schemes and thinking about how to detect and prevent them. Monitoring a council’s decisions, analyzing draft budgets and implementation reports, scrutinizing procurement, checking budget transfers data via E-Data, watching for conflicts of interest, requesting information from government institutions, working with the media proved to be effective ways to expose corruption schemes in the public works sector.