Freedom from Fear - Volume 2009, Issue 4, 2009

Corruption and control of corruption have become a focal concern in developed and developing countries. European countries - where corruption for a long time had been thought to present a plague strictly confined to underdeveloped countries - now are recognizing eminent dangers of corruption and an urgent need to control corrupt practices in the political, administrative and economic system. The Council of Europe has declared corruption a key political issue in Europe and stresses the links between corruption on the one hand and organized and serious economic crime on the other hand. However, one can say that also governments in European countries and elsewhere have (re)discovered the enormous moral, emotional and symbolic value of declaring wars against corruption. This becomes evident when for instance in the LIMA declaration corruption is depicted as a cancer, as something which has to be eradicated completely and as a disease like social phenomenon which threatens the social fabric at large. Other voices declare corruption to represent an attack on the “heart of the state”. In particular the view that corruption is closely linked to organized and transnational crime and that control of corruption should also be part of a medicine against organized crime at large has fueled attempts to strengthen repressive and preventive policies against corruption. This has led also to see corruption not only as a threat to proper public administration and law enforcement and effective anti-corruption policies as a precondition of good governance, but as a strategic instrument used by organized crime groups to establish parallel worlds and a system of impunity. Increased media attention certainly is contributing to the growing awareness of problems of corruption and corruption control. The European Union has expressed interest in corruption control in particular with a view of protecting the system of European subsidies and the European Union’s budget. However, corruption evidently exists without organized crime and without supranational opportunities to deviate funds from supranational budgets. While control of corruption and bribery for most of the 20th Century was conceived as a task entrusted to national law enforcement and national criminal justice systems, in the last two decades of the 20th Century – following the discourse on transnational organized crime – corruption control became an issue with an European, international and transnational dimension. Transnational corruption was raised as a problem in particular through the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 1977 which – after an extended multilateral discourse – initiated drafting and enactment of similar legislation in industrialized countries.

A few months ago Ian Rowan reported at Switched.com the news of a computer consultant who siphoned $1M USD from a Utah Bank. Mementosecurity commented the article on April 27th explaining how “An IT contractor hired to fix some bugs in a recent computer upgrade used his system access to make fraudulent electronic transfers into accounts under his control. He allegedly used the funds to remodel his home, pay off his two car notes, and cover a few mortgage payments. The fraud came to light when his business partner reported the suspicious transactions.”

Corruption is often depicted as a major impediment to poverty reduction. Being detrimental to good governance, corruption undermines the smooth implementation of sound economic and social policies. First, as far as petty corruption is concerned, extra payments in the forms of bribes are required from users of public services; therefore, fair access to public services is denied. The poor segments of the population are the most vulnerable to corruption, either because they cannot afford to pay bribes or because they have no possibility to escape corrupted public services (the wealthy elite can always afford private expensive clinics). Secondly, non transparent public procurements often lead to accepting offers which are not cost-effective and are sub-optimal. Public monies are therefore not allocated in the most efficient manner and are partly wasted. Thirdly, as far as grand corruption is concerned, embezzlements of public funds results in a gap in budgetary means.

As we think about how we can continue to reduce and if possible eliminate new victims of landmines, we are reminded of the remarkable advances during the evolution of mine action work which began with the establishment of the mine action operation for Afghanistan in 1989. We remember those lost and those affected and our determination to live in a world free of the threat of landmines and explosive remnants of war is fortified. It is my fervent hope that a world with zero new victims of landmines will become a reality in my lifetime.

The local public seems to be bombarded with stories about corruption. It seems that there are weekly front-page headlines boldly announcing that some former president of an African country had stolen billions of dollars and hidden them outside of their country. Another news report targets a senior politician from the Americas who is hiding in Europe with untold sums of monies. Or, that a former minister from Southeast Asia had been convicted of corruption, but their monies and properties remain safe in various financial centres around the world. This was the state of anti-corruption efforts in 2007. This arrogance and impunity had to be addressed by the international community.

According to the public opinion’s group of definitions, some behaviour or act should be considered as corruption as the public opinion considers it as corruptive. Corruption also can be defined as a process in which at least two persons, through an illegal exchange conducted with purpose of getting certain personal benefits, do something contrary to public interest and, by breaching moral and legal norms, threaten the fundamentals of democratic society and the rule of law. In any case, corruption is the generic term set for criminal offences such as bribe giving, bribe accepting, trading in influence and so on.

In 1986, Ellen Halbert was raped, stabbed, beaten with a hammer and left for dead in her home in Texas. During her recovery, she began to speak out about victims’ rights and what needed to change in our “offender-focused” criminal justice system. In 1991, she was appointed by Governor Ann Richards as the first victim to serve on the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, the board that oversees the massive adult criminal justice system in Texas. This six-year appointment ended in March 1997. Ms. Halbert has won numerous honors and awards for her work. Due to her dedication to crime victims and tireless advocacy for rehabilitation of offenders, a 500-bed female substance abuse treatment prison honored her in 1995 by naming the facility the Ellen Halbert Unit. In 1996, both the Texas Corrections Association and the Texas Crime Victim Clearinghouse established awards in her name to recognize her work on behalf of crime victims. In 1997, she won the National Crime Victim Service Award, the highest Federal award for service to victims. In 1999, she was named as one of Texas’ Women of the Century. In 2001, she was the mediator for a Court TV documentary, “Meeting With a Killer – One Family’s Journey.” This documentary was nominated for an Emmy in 2002. Ms. Halbert is presently the Director of the Victim Witness Division at the District Attorney’s Office in Travis County, Texas.

This article summarizes the main issues underlying the case of Ao Man Long, the highest profile corruption case ever occurred in the Macau Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China, which attracted international attention. Ao Man Long was the first Secretary for Public Works in the Government of the Macau SAR, a post equivalent to minister to which he was appointed on 20 December 1999, at age 43, and then reappointed in 2004 for a second term. Ao graduated in mechanical engineering from the University of Taiwan, obtained an MBA at the University of Macau, and had served as a Macau civil servant since 1987.

The current situation in Mexico has put the international community on alert due to the increas in crime rates; besides common criminality, bizarre behaviours have developed and are concerning Mexican citizens, their government and foreigners. This situation is out of the country’s control: in the past, attacks, massive kidnappings and homicides, as well as drug trafficking, were seen as isolated cases, but nowadays they have become recurrent and interconnected issues.

2006 was a dark year for the Italian football nation. The former management of FC Juventus Turin, one of the most popular teams in the world, was accused of manipulating games with the help of corrupt referees, players and officials. As a consequence, the team had to dismount to the second division and its last two-championship titles 2005 and 2006 were withdrawn. One of the managers was punished to 5 years of occupational ban. In total, 26 officials were accused.

Natural resources often provide fertile ground for corruption. Since a substantial number of partner countries in development cooperation are richly endowed with natural resources, these contexts pose a particular challenge for effective donor action. The risk of corruption cuts across several natural resource sectors, from non-renewable resources such as oil, gas, minerals and metals, to renewable resources such as forests, fisheries and land. There are, however, important variations in the challenges presented by these sectors and the manner in which corruption in relation to them can be addressed.