Question

Prevention perspective for corruption. When preparing that perspective, you must propose at least three remedial policy options; compare their relative worth based on political, administrative, financial, equity and effectiveness factors; choose the best option; and explain your choice.

Answer 1

Ans.

Political corruption is larger scale, more opaque and less reliant on day to day processes and more on the ability of the political elite to capture and use resources to benefit themselves or their networks (e.g. through the allocation of jobs, favourable contracts, or embezzlement of funds).

The corruption, the focus is more on the simplification and transparency of tax policy, and standardisation of the tax exemption process. These reforms shift the responsibility for revenue raising decisions from an individual politician to the Parliament. The importance of strong political support for a simplified and standardised process is extremely important, as the experience of tax reforms in Georgia demonstrates. In Georgia a set of technical reforms led to the simplification of the tax code, and reduction in the opportunities for corruption. However, these reforms were only successful when there was also strong political support for the enforcement of tax reforms and sanctions for those who did not reform.

Important measures for prevention are raising the anti-corruption awareness of the government officials and the public as a whole; without the participation of the public, fighting corruption would not be successful. Anti-corruption awareness includes anticorruption awareness at school, colleges and universities. The anti-corruption campaign for the public can be conducted through news agencies, and print and broadcast media. In addition, anti-corruption awareness includes seminars for government officials.

Improved transparency in the t process is expected to improve the ability of stakeholders in the process to limit the use of political power to allocate resources to pet projects, as a form of political patronage, or to allocate resources to contracts that have the potential for personal gain. Improved transparency of the budget consists of two key components, clear budget classification and for all expenditures to be reflected on the budget. It is generally acknowledged that a “robust budget classification enables more transparent information on government activities for reporting, control, audit, and ex post accountability for revenue collection and public spending” is an important aspect in improving the transparency of public finances .However the actual evidence base to demonstrate linkages between improved transparency in public finances and a reduction is corruption is extremely limited.

Administration

Each of these types of interaction between citizens and government makes different demands on public administration. All have the potential to be an opportunity for either corruption or corruption prevention. For corruption prevention purposes, satisfactory interactions between citizens and government can encourage social trust, an understanding of public sector values, compliance with anti-corruption regulation and reporting of suspected corrupt conduct.

corruption prevention measures will be most effective in context. Citizens are one of the best sources for understanding corruption in its context that policy makers have. They can bring knowledge about the types of corruption and corruption risks in the local context and the challenges it poses for implementing anticorruption policy. Citizens form the societal values and expectations that can help or hinder anti-corruption strategies and, importantly, they may also be perpetrators of corruption who need to be discouraged. Finally, there was an acknowledgment that success in corruption prevention will take time. Corruption is notorious for its ubiquity, longevity and resilience and no country will ever be entirely free of it. Rather than assume that the task of corruption prevention is futile, this realisation should encourage us to produce accurately targeted strategies that incorporate long and medium-term objectives as well as short-term goals and, most of all, to develop the capacity for as many players as possible to participate in that task.

Financial / fiscal corruption :-

Fiscal corruption is manifested in legislation and tax administration practices. Revenue losses caused by corrupt tax evasion and/ or flight into the hidden economy need to be compensated either by reducing infrastructural services and/or by transfer payments, or by higher borrowing or taxation. These options usually lead to major distortions of allocation, combined with negative impacts on employment and growth, as well as growing budget deficits.

Higher taxation, instead of leading to an increase in revenue, may lead only to an increase in the payment of bribes and a growing shift into the shadow economy . Yet corruption affects not only the scope, but also the structure of tax revenues .

Since direct taxes are usually more susceptible to corruption than indirect taxes, this implies that as an increase in corruption will mean a reduction in the progressivity of an existing tax system, with correspondingly negative effects on the distribution of income .

Customs arrangements influence the strength and structure of trade flows, and a significant proportion of public revenues. Customs also play a key role in the fight against smuggling.

Customs corruption leads to a reduction in public revenue. It also impedes the fight against illegal trade, and makes legal international trade more difficult. Elevated transaction costs caused by customs corruption constrain the competitiveness of a country and its enterprises, interest of foreign investors.

Study of relevant laws and regulations and the organization’s relevant laid-down policies, procedures, guidelines, and relevant papers.

Examination of files and records of past cases relating to the function/operation under study.adequacy and clarity of laid-down policies, procedures and guidelines on integrity and conduct as well as performance of the function/ operation;

transparency, e.g. disclosure and publicity of application procedures, vetting criteria, processing time, reasons for rejection Offer corruption prevention advice to the contractors/partners (e.g. advising a works contractor suspended from bidding government contracts due to involvement in corrupt practices on measures to improve integrity management).

effective prevention program to promote ethical culture in an organization involves the adoption of a code of conduct to help staff to deal with ethical issues they are sometimes required to handle. The code is a basic part of integrity management, as it shapes the culture of the organization and sets out the management’s expectation of its staff’s ethical standard. existence and publicity of feedback and complaint channels

which should cover the organization’s uncompromising stand against corrupt practices and its adherence to good governance. It should also clearly state the restrictions in respect to staff accepting commissions, gifts and entertainment, as well as other integrity related issues, such as managing conflict of interest and maintaining confidentiality of sensitive information, and the consequence of non-compliance.

coclusion:-

Political commitment: political leaders must not partake in corruption activities and need to provide a good example to their future counter parts; An effective anti-corruption strategy;

3. An efficient anti-corruption system: this includes a basic legal framework to prevent and punish those involved in corrupt activities;

4. A rule on asset declaration for persons of power, duty and position must be in place and must apply to such persons before and after they receive such position, power, or duty;

5. Anti-corruption awareness-raising must be continuous and must include government officials, prosecutors, judges, lawyers and the public. There is much to be done through the organization of seminars, workshops, newspapers, magazines and other possible and effective propaganda means; 6. Joint agreement on coordination between the Office of the Supreme People’s Prosecutor and the State Inspection Agency and other organizations concerned must be in place to restructure, strengthen and better coordinate among those institutions involved with detecting, investigating and prosecuting corruption;

7. Governance and administrative reform across the country is to be continued to help promote transparency, accountability and eradicate all kinds of autocracy;

8. Civil servants need to be honest to their country and to the population and those people employed in the area of finance and accountancy needs to abide by the rules and regulations that pertain to finance;

9. Finally, to prevent corruption, public participation is necessary and all state activities need to be open and transparent.