Until recently corruption was an acknowledged fact of life,“Corruption is one of the few disasters which is wholly man-made” and is to be found wherever there are human beings.

Corruption and economic turmoil often go hand-in-hand.

In western nations like the United States and many European countries, we often see corruption come to light as the result of whistle blowers or journalist efforts. But in many other areas of the world, however, corruption plays a major role in fostering staggering poverty and broken economic systems in a much more blatant way.

Why is this?  Because;

Many governments have their roots in constitutions from generations ago, and have outgrown their current systems. Many other countries are ruled by a variety of independent tribal leaders and often lack a centralized power structure with any meaningful sway.

Now it is beginning to be accepted that corruption is not a private matter between corrupted and corruptor, but something that may distort and degrade whole economies and cultures, not to mention sport.

Seven members of FIFA were arrested for corruption in their hotel in Zurich on Wednesday morning, UEFA requested the postponement of the proceeding Congress and the presidential election. They have only being rigging the World Cup for the last decade or so.

Corruption has spread its branches in almost each and every sector of our Existence.

It comes in a variety of forms, so getting a precise gauge is difficult.

Corruption is profoundly inegalitarian in its effects – it has a ‘Robin Hood-in-reverse’ character.

Corruption infringes the fundamental human right to fair treatment.

It is the poor who are most dependent on good public services, for they have few alternatives (they cannot afford private health care or schools, for example). The problem with pragmatic acceptance, seeing bribery as little more than a different way of doing business, a way to bypass red tape and to outdo business rivals.

Generally speaking the governments in poor countries are also the most corrupt.

If you were asked to give a definition to describe Corruption you would be hard press to formulate a definition that encompasses all its aspects.

You might say Corruption is;  “The act by which ‘insiders’ profit at the expense of ‘outsiders’ ” (conveying the ideas of abuse of position, offending against relationships, and under handedness).

You might say;  that the mingling of business with politics (particularly ethnic politics) is a sure recipe for corruption.

You might say;  the culprits are secrecy (in government) and poverty.

You might say;  it is the abuse of public office in exchange for private benefits.

The definition of corruption consequently ranges from the broad terms of “misuse of public power” and “moral decay” to strict legal definitions of corruption as an act of bribery involving a public servant and a transfer of tangible resources.

If corruption is to be seriously addressed its causes must be clearly identified. It is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon with multiple causes and effects, as it takes on various forms and functions in different contexts.

Can it be eradicated ?  Not a hope in hell  – Third World dictators of the Cold War era, the crash in East Asia (which had seemed both corrupt and prosperous), and the growing cost of corruption to business have all helped to focus minds.

The rankings in the table below and the color of the country on the map indicate the country score on a scale of 0 to 100 where 0 means that the country is perceived as highly corrupt and 100 as very clean.

Can it be curtailed?  Yes –  It may flourish both in over regulated and deregulated economies, under democracy or dictatorship.

Transparency is the secret.  Access to information, must be prerequisites for any Aid program or Privatizations or Acquisitions of Resources by Sovereign Wealth Funds. (Corruption significantly raises the likelihood of macroeconomic instability, in addition to reducing economic growth. This is particularly true in a globalizing world economy. The gap is widening between those countries that can manage to control corruption and those that cannot.)

Here are a few specific example of what happened in the UK. You may have noted the privatization program taking place in the UK.

Making particular reference to the 1996 sell-off of British Rail. A 1998 report submitted by the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons found that rolling stock sold for £1.8 billion was resold only ten months later for £2.7 billion. Taxpayers thus lost nearly £1 billion and former British Rail managers became multi-millionaires.

One of the biggest scams which India faced in the last decade was the Commonwealth Games scam.

Called the CWG scam in which many politicians were found guilty of making crores of money in the games illegally. The Commonwealth Games in India were held in 2010.

Then there is the Indian Coal Allocation Scam or Coalgate; it was the mother of all the scams, total scam was of Rs 10600 billion.

Or the 2G Spectrum Scam This scam led to the distribution of 2G licences to the private telecoms at through way prices in 2008, the prices were actually of 2001. It led to increment of the mobile subscribers from 4 million in 2001 to 350 million in 2008. These three scams are drop in an ocean.

It begs the question is a Scam Corruption or is it “Narrowly legalistic”

Doing no more than trying not to fall foul of the legislation is not enough.

Back to Europe.

To date, the list of corrupt Greek politicians Siemens is kept secret by Germany, only German Chancellor Angela Merkel is aware of the whole process of corruption, names and amounts received by each Greek politician.

Mr. Akis was accused of receiving 20 million euros for corruption signing arms contracts with foreign companies, especially German, which he received EUR 8 million for the country on the path of a heavy debt commander in 2000, four German submarines to 1.6 billion Euros in the MAN group was sentenced to 160 million tickets a German court for making corruption (60 million euros paid in one year) a new marketing technique to sell submarines to other countries in financial crisis as Portugal.

On 15 December 2011, is the successor of Grevy, Jacques Chirac, 78, who will scoop 2 years suspended imprisonment by the Court of Paris for embezzling public funds and abuse of power, of what happened between 1977 and 1995, thanks to a magic potion used in Europe called IMUNITE.

The issue of corruption will never be resolved if it is treated as a problem solely, or mainly, of the Third World. It is rampant at all levels of Society.

If we take a close look at the European Union although the nature and scope of corruption may differ from one EU State to another, it harms the EU as a whole by lowering investment levels, hampering the fair operation of the Internal Market and reducing public finances.

The economic costs incurred by corruption in the EU possibly amount to EUR 120 billion per year. This is one percent of the EU GDP, representing only a little less than the annual budget of the EU. This estimate could well be a conservative one. One way or the other it is “breathtaking”.

http://www.euractiv.com/video/commission-corruption-costs-eu-eu120-billion-yearly-307440

It cannot be tackled in isolation, but only in the context of efforts to reduce world poverty. The burden of Third World debt and the imbalance of power in world trade need to be addressed at the same time as tackling corruption.

The problem of corruption has been seen either as a structural problem of politics or economics, or as a cultural and individual moral problem.

Corrupt individuals and companies may be exposed and punished, but of itself this will only redirect the corruption.

Action aimed specifically against corruption will have to go hand in hand with action to secure freedom of information.

The major concern for international aid policy through the last five decades is to improve the living conditions for the poor in the poorest countries of the world.

In fact, as the world economy becomes increasingly globalized, the IMF’s anti-corruption efforts are becoming more important. The roles played by international organisations and multinational companies, and the Internet in fostering as well as combating corruption is evident for all to see.

The negative impact of corruption on development, and the consequences for the poor.

Corruption in poor countries should also look beyond the formal structures of the central state to the informal networks of patronage and social domination that often determine how political power actually is wielded, including the local community or district level. Aid has achieved so little it has drawn attention to corruption as possibly a principal cause of failure.

The IMF, the World Bank, and other international development organizations can play a valuable role in fighting corruption.

There is no point in spreading funds across twenty cities, or twenty country, they are unlikely to make enough of a dent in any one place to be effective. They should focus their resources on one or two special governance zones in a particular country. Once reform is under way there, the increased investment and tax revenue will be the “anti-corruption dividend. A win-win strategy.

Governments are all too often not looking out for the everyday needs of their population and are instead enriching a privileged elite.

In 200 years, nothing has changed. When we look at the history of political scandals, we can easily conclude that political corruption is as old as politics itself.

Money is Corruption.

“Politicians are all corrupt,” that is what emerges when you ignore the vulnerable.  

There is only one place for Corruption:

Here are the most corrupt nations in the world, as ranked by Transparency International.

Eritrea. Libya. Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan. Iraq. South Sudan. 

Afghanistan. Sudan. North Korea. Somalia. Haiti. Venezuela. Myanmar.

Honorable Mention: The United States Corruption score: 74

No surprises!