Corruption is a form of fraud. It is a misuse of public office for
private gains. The process of corruption usually has three parties involved:
the public official who is entrusted by the public to carry our specific
duties, the public who entrusted the public official, and citizen or a firm. Each
of us knows for a fact that corruption has significant negative impacts on growth: all kinds of growth. Empirical studies have shown that corruption reduces incentives to
invest, worsens the public infrastructures and services, decreases tax revenues
and distorts the composition of government spending.
Corruption usually leads to bribery or extortion. Bribery is a
situation when a person or entity gets something illegally that (s)he / it is not
entitled to. Extortion is a situation when a person or entity pays to get what
(s)he / it is entitled to. This distinction is very important especially for
government officials who are responsible to set up strategies to fight
corruption.
What a government should do to fight corruption? What public should
do to fight corruption?
Among what a government can do are the following:
- Establish
and maintain effective anti fraud commission (AFC). The legal system
should enable the AFC maintains its independence. Otherwise, the
effectiveness of the AFC would be impaired.
- Establish
and maintain internal control systems that are designed specifically to
deter, prevent, and detect corruption.
- Establish a
whistle blow system in each governmental entity. This is one of the most
effective tools to discover corruption.
- Promote
fraud and corruption educational programs at the national level.
- Engage
universities and academia in fighting corruption.
- Provide a
healthy environment to enable the civil society play its normal monitoring
role regarding the performance of the public sector.
- Enhance
the legal system to provide a strong framework for all stakeholders.
- Establish
code of ethics in each governmental entity that promotes anti corruption
practices.
- Instill
accountability for each post in the government. Transparency is a prerequisite
to have accountability functions as intended.
- Promote
good governance
- Obtain a
financial position of the public official at the time (s)he starts business in the government and when
(s)he leaves
(s)he post.
- Fight the
conflicts of interest that prevails
in too many corrupted governments worldwide
Fighting corruption is not a program that will start at a point and
ends at another. It is a national strategy that should start soon and does not
stop at any time in the future. Corruption will never be eliminated. It will
stay as there are societies alive. A government should not manage corruption,
it should minimize it.
Corrupted people are not corrupted by nature. They were not born
corrupted. There were motives and opportunities that helped them to pursue
their corrupt acts. However, what motivates a fraudster in Mexico may not
motivate a fraudster in Cameron. Therefore, Corruption should first be
diagnosed professionally and properly, then policies should be established
based on strategies to minimize this phenomenon.
The answer to the question I raised regarding what you should know
about corruption in the public sector is it depends on where you stand in the
process: public official, public, citizen or a firm. It is evident that if
there is no citizen or a firm in the process, there will never be corruption.
That is why the public (the government) should ensure that they listen to its
citizens and its firms.
If you are a government official, do not say it is complex and
cannot be solved; you should say why we have corruption and how we should fight
it. Unless you face it seriously, you may end with a situation like Egypt or at
the best like Greece.
Mohammed J. Masoud, CPA, CFE, CICA, MBA
Managing Director
Birzeit Consulting ME
Tempe, Arizona
USA
Published on June 9, 2011 in the Financial Gazette
newspaper-Harare as a part of the 3rd Forensic Conference for Africa
“Fighting Fraud/Corruption and Money Laundering in Africa Using Investigative
Skills". The title of the paper we presented was “Preventing and
Detecting Fraud/Corruption in the Public Sector."
