Corruption. 3 Types, Causes, Effects and Prevention

There is no universally accepted definition of corruption due to the fact that corruption covers a broad range of illegal, illicit, dishonest, or irregular human actions and behaviour. In 1980, the Zambian Government enacted the Corrupt Practices Act which led to the formation of the Anti-Corruption Commission.

The Anti-Corruption Commission Act number 42 of 1996 repealed the Corruption Practices Act of 1980. The provision of the Act overrides the provision of any Zambian Law such as the Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, or any other legislation which conflicts with the provisions of the Act. The ACC Act provides the main functions of the ACC. Its functions are as follows:

• Investigate and prosecute people who engage in corrupt practices
• Prevents Corruption
• Carry Community Education on Corruption

      The Anti Corruption Commission Act 42 of 1996 defines corruption as soliciting, accepting, obtaining, promising or offering of gratification by way of a bribe or other person temptations of inducement or the misuse or abuse of public office for private advantage or benefit. Corruption can be defined as the giving of anything of value to a public officer, in return for a favour or abusing one’s official position for personal gain. This means that decisions are taken not for the public interest or benefit, but to serve private interests. The ACC 1996 Act identifies two kinds of corruption:

1. Gratification

This is any payment in cash or kind to a public officer meant to win a favour. However, this must be differentiated from a casual gift which the Act allows any officer to receive.

• Bribe

This is a sum of money or something valuable that is offered to somebody to persuade him or her to do something dishonest.

TYPES OF CORRUPTION

Three types of corruption have been identified. These are: petty, grand and political or institutional (TIZ, 1993).

• Petty Corruption: This comprises small payments usually made to junior public servants to access public services or to overcome bureaucracy. These are sometimes known as ‘facilitating payment’. In public life this abhorrent behaviour is manifested in the form of materials, favours or bribes paid or received in exchange for goods and services in schools, scholarships, or bursary programmes, courts, local authorities, licensing agencies, mechanical services, the police, immigration and passport services.
• Grand Corruption: This type of Corruption involves substantial amounts of money. It is usually practised by senior public servants and politicians in return for favours. For example, Public appointments or privatization of government-owned companies or assets.
• Institutional or Political Corruption: This type of corruption is associated with the electoral process. This is practised by those contesting for political positions or power for example, by donating money to influence the voters’ choice, Sponsoring a political party during elections in the expectation of business favours following a hoped-for election victory.

COMPONENTS OF CORRUPTION

These include the following:

• Patronage: This type of governance gives rewards for royalty therefore it substitutes good performance.
• Racism: This is the unfair treatment of others due to their colour.
• Extortion: Unlawful extraction of Money or favour by force or intimidation.
• Bribe: Considering, giving an inducement to influence conduct in one’s favour, country to standing procedures and regulations.
• Fraud: Misrepresentation done to obtain unfair advantage by giving or receiving false advantageous information.
• Nepotism: Giving special favours to one’s relatives or friends.
• Embezzlement: Stealing public resources on a large scale.
• Agent/ Principal: Relationship which is related to an agent improperly benefiting from activities relating to the handling of his or her principal’s mandate, for example, abuse of government property, equipment and labour by public officials.

Main Causes of Corruption

1. Low Pay scales/ Wages: Most of the employees in the government sector are paid low wages and salaries. Hence some employees revert to corruption for more financial benefits.

2. Low Job opportunities. This is another cause of corruption. Due to a lack of job opportunities at will, there are many people who like to go for corruption mode to get a job offer. They will be ready to pay lumpsum amounts for the job offer to the higher officials or politicians.

3. Lack of Strict and fast punishments: Even if someone is found guilty or even caught red-handed by the anti-corruption officials or media, the convicts get less punishment. First, they will be suspended for a few months or weeks and then re-posted to another location with the same Job grade and pay. So this means the official who did the corrupt practice is given a free license to continue his practice.

If the government is so strict that any such corrupt incidents will lead to permanent removal from the job and also punishment like several years imprisonment then the corruption will come down to a large extent.

4. Lack of ill fame: If a person is found to be corrupt or has done some unacceptable misconduct, he or she has to be avoided and not be respected. But in some countries like India, those with corruption and other offense-related history are given prominent positions like the Member of Parliament or even higher posts. Instead of being disrespected, they are respected.

5. Lack of Unity in public: Public openly criticizes corruption but interestingly there is no unity among the public to stop corruption. If a person wants to get his done his work, he gets it done by corrupt means if possible and then later criticizes the corrupt official. If the public stands united against corruption in such a way that no one is ready to offer bribes to get their work done then the corrupt officials will have no other option but to work in a corruption-free manner.

During elections, politicians try to lure the people by offering money and other things. If these politicians win and get power, they try to regain 10 to 100 times the amount spent for their elections.

6. Lack of transparency in affairs and deals: Many seat selection processes like education, contracts for a job, employee income reports (wealth possession), etc lack transparency. For this purpose, there is a new act namely RTI: right to information, but the act is not strong enough to prevent malpractices.

7. Lack of Independent detective agency: India has no independent detective agency which can investigate with full power and freedom to expose corrupt individuals. The existing agencies like the Central Bureau of investigation are named by the highest court of the Indian judicial system as a parrot which indicates how free these investigating agencies are to work. Hence anyone who commits an offence will not be so afraid of the investigation as they can escape from it by taking the help of the ruling political party.

8. Option of many political parties: In India, anyone can establish a political party. So there are many political parties in India. If the political party wins, then the members in it will desire to expand the party all over the country. To do so, they need enough financial reserves. For this, once they come into power, they opt for corrupt means to make the wealth needed to expand the party.

9. Lack of enough powers to the judicial system and other independent organizations like the election commission cannot ban a politician from contesting in case they make a mistake or do not comply with the rules during the election campaign (like distributing money to people etc). Similarly, the judicial system has low options to punish someone who is found to be

10. Lack of accountability: In government, there is a big trend of corruption. This is because of a lack of accountability. The employees in government offices do not perform to their par excellence. If they receive 100 files to be cleared in a week they may not even clear 50 of them in that week. They tend to postpone the clearance of the files. So those who are in urgency of the clearance have to get them done by rewarding the officials involved in the clearance office. This lack of accountability in government offices is the chief cause of corruption.

If there is a mandate that all the files or at least 95% of files received by government offices for clearance are cleared in the said period than corruption can be minimized to a large extent.

Effects of Corruption

The negative consequences of corruption are many in Zambia, and among them are:

• Poor investment

• Rise in poverty

• Poor national development

Poor Investment

Unemployment in Zambia would have been eradicated to some extent if only investors were attracted to it. Companies that would have invested in Zambia are afraid because they do not know if the corrupt practice will ruin their industries in time. Because of this, they refuse to invest in Zambia.

Rise in Poverty

when the heads of public service are busy laundering the money that is supposed to be used to create employment for the masses and reduce poverty, what happens is that there will be a rise in the poverty level of the country. Just like the rise in poverty as statistically shown between 2011 and 2015. Since the government is selfish and does not want to help the poor, poverty continues to rise in Zambia.

Poor National Development

Any country with high corruption is likely to experience developmental bankruptcy. A situation where some CEOs indulge in corrupt practices to make money means that economic development will suffer. When Zambians keep on shifting the country’s currency to foreign countries, there will be less economic development in Zambia.

Some of the effects are as follows:

• Distortion of standards when it enables those who are less deserving to reach goals ahead of those of greater merit
• Loss of respect for the rule of law
• Escalation of crime
• Political instability leading to coups and civil wars.

PREVENTIVE MEASURES TO CORRUPTION

Self- Satisfaction

Self-Satisfaction in this context implies being content with what one has. When the leaders of Zambia are satisfied with the salary they are paid and use them in the right way, the issue of embezzlement and money laundering will be history. Managers who are satisfied with what they are paid will not have time to indulge in corruption to make more money.

Institution of Strong Anti-Corruption Groups

Creating strong anti-corruption institutions is another arsenal to win the fight against corruption. This group is to work independently with the government of Zambia to ensure transparency. Anyone who is caught in corrupt practice by the group should experience the consequences decided by the anti-corruption agency. That he is a minister or president should not be an excuse for facing the punishment he is to receive according to the Constitution of Zambia.

Employment Generation

The unemployed in the country find themselves involved in corruption mainly because they want to make money to meet the demand of the day. Governments and capable hands should Endeavour to generate more jobs for citizens to get employed and paid in return. A busy mind may find it difficult to indulge in corruption because he is being paid adequately.

Proper Government Funding of Schools

Understanding the importance of skill acquisition will go a long way to propel them to develop all the schools in Zambia. When more attention is paid to tertiary institutions in the country, it will produce graduates who are employable. Installation of the necessary machines needed in universities will help Zambian graduates acquire skills and use them to generate income, even if no company employs them after graduation.
Self-employment will make graduates more determined in the work they do and will prevent them from committing criminal crimes, corruption and the rest.

Treating All Citizens Equally

Treating any offender in the country equally will help reduce corruption. Nobody is above the law and any who acts contrary to it should be given the punishment that he or she deserves. That he is the Minister of Finance or Governor of the Central Bank of Zambia should not count in this case. If any minister or president is given the punishment he deserves for corruption, others will learn and separate themselves from any corrupt practice.

Other measures are as follows:

• Providing checks and balances. For example, by  strengthening the Auditor Generals’ Office, the Ombudsman and other wings
• Putting in place an effective code of conduct for people in public office
• Cutting down on bureaucracy in public offices
• Incorporating the topic of corruption in the school curriculum starting at a very early age, for example, in Early Childhood Education
• Granting autonomy to institutions and agencies engaged in combating corruption so as to avoid political interference

INSTITUTIONS AND ORGANIZATIONS THAT DEAL WITH CORRUPTION

The ACC is the official institution established by the government to fight Corruption. The Commission was established through the practices Act No.14 of 1980 and became operational in 1982. Other agencies that work in collaboration with the ACC when handling cases of corruption include, the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) the police and courts of law. Organisations are Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) was established in June 2000. It was formerly registered in January 2001 and officially launched on 20^th July of the same year.

National Movement Against Corruption (NAMAC): The movement was officially launched in march, 2002, by the late Republican President Dr Levy Patrick Mwanawasa and its motto was Working together for a Corruption-free Zambia. The Foundation for Democratic Process ( FODEP) is one of the oldest civil society organizations in Zambia. It was established in 1991 with the objective of promoting democracy in Zambia through programmes of Civic Education and promotion of human rights and election monitoring.

ROLES OF INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION

Individuals and groups in Zambia contribute to the fight against Corruption by doing the following:

• Reporting corrupt officers to the institutions that fight corruption such as NAMAC, FODEP and TIZ
• Supporting all the institutions and organizations that fight against Corruption.
• By participating in public discussion forums on the promotion of integrity in public life.
• By supporting a free press.
• Knowing the procedures on how to acquire goods and services.

CORRUPTION IN THE ELECTORAL PROCESS

The electoral process covers the institutions, procedures and systems that make it possible to have free and fair elections. Over the years, elections in many parts of the world, including Zambia have shown that despite there being an Electoral Code of Conduct that has to be adhered to, many political parties still engage themselves in a lot of malpractices to win votes from the electorates. The most common forms of corruption practised include:

• Donation of money to influence the Voter`s choice which is done during the campaign period.
• Distribution of money and foodstuffs to influence voters which is done  to a large community to win favours and votes
• Providing entertainment during the campaign period to influence voters, especially the youth.
• Buying voters cards from other political parties to reduce the number of voters who support that party is perceived to win the election.
• Giving promises to the voters such as jobs and services in exchange for their support and votes.
• Paying journalists to act as campaign agents of political parties by twisting facts and giving false information to the public against a political party or the leaders of the political parties.

Corruption in the electoral process distorts the whole concept of democracy. Principles of democracy are undermined because the voters are lured by whatever means possible into making choices against their will. Leaders who lack integrity are voted into power and became a threat to the whole democratic process. Corruption in this area reduces accountability and representation in policy formulation.

MEASURES TO FIGHT CORRUPTION IN THE ELECTORAL PROCESS

• Punishment: Those who are found wanting should be punished for such acts without fear or favour.
• Political Parties Resources or Financing: This simply means that all the amounts of money the political parties use during the campaign period must be declared so as to promote free and fair elections
• Public Education: sensitizing the electorates on the evils of corruption.
• Political Will: There should be political will to fight corruption. Only those with high moral standing and integrity should hold public offices, especially at the senior level
• Prevention: Law enforcement officers, Civil Society Organizations and government institutions must play an active role in the fight to prevent corruption by making their presence felt during the election period.