Photo: © Frederico Cavazzini
December 9 is the International Anti-Corruption Day. Corruption is a socio-economic disease that prevents millions of people all over the world from having a better and more just life. Some call it "tax on economic growth". Nobody knows for sure how much it is worth, but it is estimated to cost the world approximately one trillion dollars per year. Corruption is, undoubtedly, one of today’s greatest obstacles to economic development and poverty reduction. The rise up of quantitative studies and research in this field has made it possible to address the problem in a more frontal way and, in fact, it appears that the emphasis placed in most public sector reforms in the last decade has actually been on anti-corruption. But have they been successful? Is it possible to quantify a phenomenon that proliferates around the world largely due to its "transparency", that is, invisibility?
Even though this phenomenon has existed since the beginning of time as a wicked form of human interaction, in the last decades, political and economic liberalization created a vulnerable environment for corruption to erupt and the emergence of a global economy helped to proliferate this disease and took it to a whole new level: from intra-nation abuse of power and position for private gain to multinational illicit activities. Corruption is not restricted to a specific region nor level of national income, but like any epidemic, it can occur in both developed and developing world. But if the global economy bubble helped to spread this disease, it also disseminated information at a scale never before seen and thanks to that the public eye has become more and more aware of its many forms and faces and its cross-sectional social and economic consequences. In fact, corruption can be observed in many sectors, including the health sector. This is a major concern for several reasons I have already pointed out before.
Even though this phenomenon has existed since the beginning of time as a wicked form of human interaction, in the last decades, political and economic liberalization created a vulnerable environment for corruption to erupt and the emergence of a global economy helped to proliferate this disease and took it to a whole new level: from intra-nation abuse of power and position for private gain to multinational illicit activities. Corruption is not restricted to a specific region nor level of national income, but like any epidemic, it can occur in both developed and developing world. But if the global economy bubble helped to spread this disease, it also disseminated information at a scale never before seen and thanks to that the public eye has become more and more aware of its many forms and faces and its cross-sectional social and economic consequences. In fact, corruption can be observed in many sectors, including the health sector. This is a major concern for several reasons I have already pointed out before.
Transparency International (TI) is a non-governmental organization that monitors and discloses corporate and political corruption in international development. Its main goal is to rise public awareness and turn the fight against corruption into a major political priority. Regarding the health sector, we know how much money it costs to provide medical care. If we are able to identify some problems in developed countries, we will certainly find bigger problems in those countries where corruption has become part of the daily life. We know corruption deprives people of access to health care and is one of the reasons why increased spending does not correlate with improved health outcomes. According to TI, if in the United States (that spend 15.3 percent of GDP in health care) the two largest US public health care programmes estimate that 5 to 10 percent of their budget is lost to ‘overpayment’, the situation in Cambodia is much worst: health practitioners estimate that more than 5 per cent of the health budget is lost to corruption before it even leaves central government! Corruption is, thus, a major concern for those involved in global aid.
The sucess of HIV/AIDS programmes has also been highly affected by corruption: "the sale of counterfeit medicines, the diversion of funds by ministries and national AIDS councils, and extortion of money by health workers in exchange for drugs and sterile equipment, are only a few examples of how corruption impedes the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic", says TI. That's why such programmes should ensure the proper use of the budgets through anti-corruption mechanisms. It would not only prevent the waste of money available to purchase drugs but also show the donors that funds are being well used. Institutional strengthening will also lower the risk of corruption and the motivations that push its practice: the rational thinking that if the expected benefits of a corrupt transaction outweigh its expected costs, an individual will be enticed to perform this transaction. In other words, transparency is the way forward and donors, agencies and governments must agree in the use of accounting and auditing mechanisms to reduce transaction costs, improve efficiency and minimize risks of corruption for the sake of all of us and of the future generations.
(written in collaboration with Frederico Cavazzini, PhD candidate in Development Studies, World Bank consultant)
The sucess of HIV/AIDS programmes has also been highly affected by corruption: "the sale of counterfeit medicines, the diversion of funds by ministries and national AIDS councils, and extortion of money by health workers in exchange for drugs and sterile equipment, are only a few examples of how corruption impedes the fight against the HIV/AIDS pandemic", says TI. That's why such programmes should ensure the proper use of the budgets through anti-corruption mechanisms. It would not only prevent the waste of money available to purchase drugs but also show the donors that funds are being well used. Institutional strengthening will also lower the risk of corruption and the motivations that push its practice: the rational thinking that if the expected benefits of a corrupt transaction outweigh its expected costs, an individual will be enticed to perform this transaction. In other words, transparency is the way forward and donors, agencies and governments must agree in the use of accounting and auditing mechanisms to reduce transaction costs, improve efficiency and minimize risks of corruption for the sake of all of us and of the future generations.
(written in collaboration with Frederico Cavazzini, PhD candidate in Development Studies, World Bank consultant)
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