Corruption
What is corruption?
Corruption means the abuse of power for private gain.
Examples
- A health officer demands money for performing services which are supposed to be free
- A politician changes a law to favor their financial supporters.
Why should you care about corruption?
- Corruption adds significant costs to the price of doing business
- Corruption steals resources that could be used to build the capacity of countries and harms their abilities to serve citizens
- Corruption prevents a “fair playing field” in competitions to provide goods and services
- Corruption thrives where there is a lack of transparency, which can damage a nation’s social and economic fabric
How do you spot corruption?
Corruption can have the following red flags:
- A significant improvement in lifestyle without explanation.
- Owning property or high-value items that do not match the salary of the person and without other explanation (such as inheritance).
- Procurement officials who fail to complete conflict of interest forms.
- Procurement officials who act above or below their normal duties during a contract award.
- A government official is given additional money to perform their duties.
- Excessive presents are given from suppliers such as paid vacations, luxury goods and expensive liquor.
