The result of International business attitudes to corruption survey 2006 says that:
“Corruption remains a major obstacle to international business according to a new survey commissioned by Control Risks and Simmons & Simmons. Despite new laws criminalising foreign bribery, there have been few prosecutions outside the US and honest companies are still losing out to dishonest competitors on a large scale. Host countries lose out because high levels of corruption discourage reputable businesses from investing. And, although many companies are tightening their anti-corruption procedures, overall standards of compliance remain highly uneven – both across countries and across sectors”
This all indicates after taking so many measures still corruption is somewhere ruining the world slowly and steadily. This above survey result is based on the telephonic interview with around 350 international organisations in UK, US, Germany, France, Netherlands, Brazil and Hong Kong.
The measures which are taken to control the bribery and corruption are only effective if the government and companies both take action together. Today big multi national organizations are anti bribery codes and training programs to avoid corruption.
The report also states that 43% of company failed to win new business because the competitor paid bribes against and the 1/3rd have lost business because of bribery.
Corruption is also the biggest obstacle in economic, social and political development of the world; all the countries are taking measures to control this problem. The economic growth also declines if the corruption increases.
The corruption in politics is also as much as harmful as in other sectors. The general public select their choice of politician; so that they can get the maximum social facilities effectively and efficiently buy electing them we give politicians full right to use the available monetary and other resources. Corruption compounds political exclusion: if votes can be bought, there is little incentive to change the system that sustains poverty. Bribes increases the private wealth of officials and may induce them to take actions that are against the interest of their principals, who may be bureaucratic superiors, politically appointed ministers, or multiple principals such as the general public. Politicians for their greed take benefit of the monetary power which they have acquired by doing fraud promising to the general public.
The measure taken by TRANSPARENCY INTERNATION is the global society organisation which is fighting against the corruption and their aim is to make the world free of corruption. This organisation was developed in 1993 and become more popular. The following steps are necessary to tackle the problem of political corruption. first is campaign and political party finance , second corrupt money which is coming from corporate world, third put the corrupt politician for justice, their should be strict measures against vote buying and the last is electoral fraud and election monitoring.
These measures are prescribed by the transparency international for removing the political corruption from the world.
Corruption is an obstacle to remove poverty and development in developing countries.
For example in developing countries very poor cannot pay bribes to the police officials and if they will pay the bribes to the police officials then they will not be able to pay the school fees of their children, so how will they survive, the developing countries for example India, which has very good GDP of 9.2% in 2007 has 72 rank in corruption index. The position in INDIA is also very bad in regard to corruption, it is the pervasive problems affecting India, all the big politicians are doing fraud to fulfil their needs and wants, so the normal person will not be willing to pay tax if he will see that his hard earned money will be not going to use in infrastructure and other facilities instead it is used by politician for their needs. This is all because tax payers are not paying full amount of tax and they give bribes to the accountant, and then accountant make their tax very less. In private sector, corruption increases the cost of business through the price of illicit payments themselves, the management cost of negotiating with officials, and the risk of breached agreements or detectionThis all concludes that its not going to be removed it has become the base in developing countries, however still the measure are always taken to tackle this problem in every county, but if the politician will behave like this, then there is no point of blaming anyone, because they are the one who are taking the main decision of the country for its all round development in terms of economic and social. The one of the biggest measure taken place in India is the RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT, by this act now the general pubic has got the limited right to ask some clarification on the government issues.
So the corruption is creating problem in all the sectors political, economical, social and environmental.
Economic affects of the corruption
The overall economic growth of the country decline and it will result in the less growth which ultimately affects the economy of the country. As this is happen because for example if there is very good company for taking tender and that company will not be able to take this tender because their competitor has paid the bribes. So this will affect the growth economically.
The main problem of world is poverty, for removing this problem many government business and social development take measure but because of many hindrances and the most important is corruption. For example if a child of a poor person got good marks and good education still he will be not able to get good job in many countries because they don’t have any reference and they cant be able to pay bribes.
Corruption leads to inflation, the price of goods get increased because of black-marketing of good, illegal selling of consumer goods, over stocking of consumer good this all leads to the inflation. For example the PDS (public distribution system) in developing countries it means the poor people get the consumer goods by the process of rationing, but the authority of this rationing authority is in the hands of private owners and either they do over stocking and when the prices get increase they sell these goods to local dealers instead of the poor people.
In corrupt societies the Economic reforms are not be able to sustained because these are not favourable to some kind of business, so they put the obstacles against the economic reforms and this is easy for them because their society is corrupt. Secondly, there society is corrupt, and then the implementers of this society are also corrupt because they are coming from the same society, they will not take interest in these reforms because in corrupt societies there is habit in officials, they cant work if there is not any monetary gain for them, so the economic reforms get failed.
The fundamental problem is also the economic development, there are moral issues also attached to this, if we want to develop a country so there has to be equal rights given to every individual, and right to equality has to be there, there should not be any discrimination on the basis of race, caste, sex and religion, so that everyone can take benefit of the all the resources, but corrupt society injustice and inequality, this is the fundamental outcome of corruption, as it is obvious the talk of equality in a corrupt society is frivolous. So again if society is corrupt all the individuals can not take the benefit of all the resources, for example in some under developed countries there is always a issue of discrimination on the basis of religion race caste sex.
Another tentacle of corruption which is widely spread in such societies is of social degradation. In a way it takes us back to the ancient primal ages. Where there was no respect for fellow humans and societal values. The name of the game was money and how to maximise one’s resources. When a society as a whole tries to embrace corrupt behaviour or also if a society closes its eyes to corruption and lets it spread, the implications for the society can be lethal. It would not be naïve to say that such a society and such a group of people stand no chance to develop their civilization.
Societal degradation implies loss of moral and ethical values as propounded by the ancient Greek philosophers Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas.
Corruption not only gives rise to social imbalance it also leads to violation of the basic human/natural rights.
Concluding remarks:
It is all well to speak of corruption as an unethical practice. It is well-established that it in essence is a bad virtue.
But a flip of the coin shows the other side as well.
Why is corruption prevalent? What is the answer to this question?
Why do some societies embrace it and accept it?
Some under-developed countries and developing nations allow these practices and have no laws against it. Some Latin American countries, allow businesses to account for the bribes that they pay, as expenses in their financial reports. This is a ghastly thought, if you come from the first world. But it’s true.
This breeds from the fact that, there actually is no other way to get things done in some places. There are parts of our world where still equality is a castle in the clouds. You need to play the game by their rules.
So does this mean, we should let it prevail and do nothing?
No!
We, businesses, governments and all stakeholders should and must work towards a common goal of a corruption-free world. The path is not easy and is ridden with unseen and visible obstacles. But still, walk we must!
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_India#Corruption
Source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bribery
http://www.crg.com/pdf/corruption_survey_2006_V3.pdf
