One such societal trend we can talk about is corruption. What is corruption? According to Wikipedia, corruption is "spiritual or moral impurity or deviation from an ideal. Corruption may include many activities including bribery and embezzlement.Government, or 'political', corruption occurs when an office-holder or other governmental employee acts in an official capacity for personal gain." ( Wikipedia, 2013).
When talking about this on a national scale, New Zealand is ranked one of the least corrupt countries in the world. A non-governmental organisation called Transparency International uses a Corruption Perception Index(CPI) to compare levels of economic crime in different countries and has consistently ranked New Zealand as one of the least corrupt countries in the world. (Transparency International (2011). "Corruption Perceptions Index". Transparency International. Transparency International. Retrieved 1 September 2013.)
The picture below shows the CPI done by Transparency International for the year 2012:
But Transparency International themselves say that their rankings are based on opinion surveys rather than proper evidence, as corruption is "to a great extent a hidden activity that is difficult to measure".
Regardless of the scale of corruption in any given country, the fact is that corruption does remain, and more widespread in some countries than in other and it poses a global threat to the economics and peoples lives worldwide.
Although the scale of corruption differs from country to country, the fact remains that each and every country has some level of corruption happening, and New Zealand is one of those countries. Though ranked 3rd on Transparency's list of corruption scale, it is still occurring, and a report was published by Transparency International's New Zealand partner, TINZ on internal corruption within New Zealand. A summarised version of the report is as follows :
| Global Corruption Barometer 2013 |
3% of Kiwi’s Report Paying a Bribe in Global Survey
9 July, 2013 - Transparency International today released the 2013 Global Corruption Barometer, and its key finding from the global survey of 114,000 respondents in 107 countries: bribery is widespread with 27 per cent of those surveyed globally reporting they have paid a bribe in the last 12 months when interacting with public institutions and services.
The New Zealand component of the survey involved 1000 New Zealanders and was undertaken by Colmar Brunton in January and February this year and found:
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So what actually causes corruption? According to a paper done by World Bank, one of the main reasons of corruption are bad systems of governance. The paper also goes on to say that there are many personal motivators within this cause. It says people offer bribes because they want an unfair advantage over others. Some seek bribes for reasons special to them, such as :
a.) Politicians look for bribes as "insurance" in case they happen to lose their office, as they will not be qualifying for a monthly pension
b.) Government officials need the extra money to maintain a quality standard of living for themselves and their families, especially if salaries have not been raised to match inflation, so they can meet commitments
c.) Employees are not satisfied with bad management or unfair pay levels.This causes them to justify making false expenses claims and/or taking bribes
d.) Some see it as doing the public 'a favour' by reducing the amount of fines they have to pay and reducing the legal implications of certain wrongdoings by just paying a bribe to 'settle' the case.
All these reasons and more are used by people worldwide to justify taking, and giving bribes, and it is a tough cycle to break as to eliminate corruption, both the giver and taker has to be eliminated.
What are some of the implications of corruption on society?
The impacts of corruption are widespread, related to political, economic, social and environmental effects. But the one we will be looking at in this module is the social impact from corruption.
The degree to which corruption makes a difference in common peoples lives and causes poverty to increase is direct proportional to the level of this social ill and how widespread it is in society. The development of a country or a state also depends on the amount of resources are lost to corruption. In developed countries like New Zealand, corruption is limited to a small group of projects and where the common man does not really encounter it on a daily basis, the impact of corruption is minimal and does not endanger the welfare of the public. Whereas in developing and poor countries such as Pakistan, where each dollar is counted towards the development of the country, corruption hampers the country's development quite badly. In fact one recent report by the World Bank lists corruption and lack of transparency as the core reasons for Pakistan's failure to develop. ( Source: http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/columns/16-Aug-2011/Impact-of-corruption-on-our-society. Retrieved September 5,2013)
It has been further proven that corruption increases the poverty level by reducing the level of social services to the poor, which then creates incentives for higher investment in capital-intensive projects and lower investment in labor-intensive projects. This deprives the poor of income-generating opportunities. Government officers also might use their authority for private gain in designing and/or implementing public policies. This will lead to enrichment of these officers in question as well as private individuals who stand to gain a larger share of public benefits. Thus the benefits of corruption will likely be enjoyed by the better connected individuals in society who are mostly higher income earners, and this also leads to affecting income distribution. ( Gupta, S. (September 20, 2001). Does Corruption affect income inequality and poverty. )
According to another paper done by one Brima Karl Samura, corruption also discourages people to work together for a common good. Frustation and general apathy permeates the public, which then results in a weak civil society. It then becomes a norm to ask for and receive bribes. He also goes on to report that it increases social inequality, widens the gap between the poor and rich, increases poverty and increases lack of basic needs like water, food, medicines, causes jealousy, hatred and insecurities. (Retrieved September 11, 2013 from http://gnpai.org/researchlibrary/corruption/THE%20EFFECTS%20OF%20CORRUPTION.pdf )
The table below, taken from one such research paper done on the impacts of corruption, shows the data collected from 20 respondents who were given questionnares about the effects of corruption on their social lives:
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| Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/kpbnepal/the-impacts-of-corruption-on-the-social-and-environmental-sustainability-in-nepal-13083411 |
According to that survey done, most of the problems suffered in their jobs by these respondents was because of corrupt practices. Because of this they are forced to suffer from poverty, low salary/profit, gender discrimination, and lack of access to natural resources. (Nepal Labour Foundation, January 2011)
From the above it is clear that corruption has many adverse impacts on society, and that each and every country has to work hard towards eradicating corruption as much as they can in order to develop. As a conclusion, here is a quote from a famous leader, Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam:
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| Source : http://izquotes.com/quote/98305 |
Dheenesh
References :
Corruption. (n.d). Retrieved 10 September 2013 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption
Corruption Perceptions Index. (2012). Retrieved September 11, 2013 from http://www.transparency.org/cpi2012/results
Combating bribery and corruption. Ministry of Justice. (n.d). Retrieved September 5, 2013 from http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/criminal-justice/bribery-and-corruption
Global Corruption Barometer. (2013). Retrieved September 6, 2013 from http://transparencynz.org.nz/index.php/indices-reports/global-reports/161-global-corruption-barometer-2013
The Effects of Corruption. (n.d). Retrieved September 01, 2013 from http://gnpai.org/researchlibrary/corruption/THE%20EFFECTS%20OF%20CORRUPTION.pdf
