Corruption Essay

Section One - Facets of corruption

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has defined corruption as “the misuse of public power, office or authority for private benefit- through bribery, extortion, influence peddling, nepotism, fraud, speed money or embezzlement (UNDP, 1999).” In some Asian countries, corruption can be a way of life when it is rampant and occurs at all levels. Corruption can also be grand or petty in nature. George Moody-Stuart (1997) has defined grand corruption as “the misuse of public power by heads of states, ministers and top officials for private, pecuniary profit.” Conversely, underpaid civil servants who demand bribes from the people to expedite their applications or perform other favours practice petty corruption. For instance, many civil servants in the Philippines are paid starvation wages and resort to petty corruption to supplement their meager wages. The UNDP (2008) contends that petty corruption is a “misnomer” because it affects the “daily lives of a very large number of people, especially the poor.”

According to Amundsen (1999), the illicit or immoral nature of political corruption makes it even more “inaccessible to scientific investigation than most human behavior.” The concealed, under-communicated, and illegal nature of corruption “indicates the feebleness of statistical methods in assessing its quantitative aspects. ” It is problematic to measure the actual extent of corruption for four main reasons. Firstly, it is difficult to collect data on bureaucratic corruption in government agencies as corrupt bureaucratic conceal their activities to evade detection. Secondly, given the sensitive nature of bureaucratic corruption, survey research methods cannot be employed to obtain direct ...

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...sure their laws comply with international regulations and standards, and are planning to amend existing laws or draft new legislation. Furthermore, greater emphasis and attention has been paid to strengthen anti-money laundering systems and laws. The plethora of initiatives and action serves to display Asian countries’ proactive responsibilities and inclination in cleaning up regional and national corruption. Countries are dedicating important resources to strengthen capacity and enhancing knowledge within their law enforcement authorities to enable them to deal with the growing complexity of corruption and related crimes. As a result, there are no Asian countries featuring on the list of non-cooperative countries of the Financial Action Task Force. This significant achievement is a testimony of the progress of Asian Countries has accomplished in curbing corruption.