Anum (2018) defines corruption as dishonesty in conduct, particularly in connection to job performance. From a political angle, corruption can be defined as criminal, dishonest conduct by a person entrusted with a position of power. Such persons then take advantage of their standing in society to illicitly acquire benefits for themselves. Concerning government systems, corruption can be viewed as the use of political office or power for private gain. The private benefit realized is usually at the expense of the larger society (Gherasim & Ionescu, 2019). Essentially, corruption entails wrongful use of office, resulting in an illegitimate gain for holders of such office (Mahmood et al., 2017). Corruption within government systems comes in various forms and has different implications for society. There are also a number of ways through which such corruption in government systems can be combated. The research paper herein tackles each of these concerns.
Forms of Corruption in Government Systems
The government refers to the systems through which the overall operations of nations are administered (Stiglitz & Rosengard, 2015). As such, there are different variations of how those entrusted with high office conduct themselves with dishonesty. For one, corruption in government systems can come in the form of improper use of office to influence the employment of staff. Ideally, the recruitment of individuals to public jobs ought to be a competitive process involving rigorous competence testing of applicants (Barkemeyer et al., 2018). However, in corrupt government systems, the process involves undue influence from holders of influential positions in government. As such, there are practices of patronage, such as nepotism and cronyism. While nepotism refers to the employment of one’s kin, cronyism refers to the employment of one’s friends (Mahmood et al., 2019). In these ways, the benefits meant for the public, in the form of employment opportunities, are used up by influential individuals for their gains. All these arise from dishonesty in conduct by holders of high office in society.
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Corruption could also manifest in the form of parochialism, in which case influential persons in government only focus on the interests of few individuals. The focus on a small section of society influences the use of public advantages to benefit such a small segment rather than the whole society. Parochialism comes in the form of embezzlement of public funds, peddling of public influence, and high graft. Whichever form manifests, the benefit meant for the society is thus redirected to benefit a select few therein (Slemrod, 2016). The dishonest use of influence by holders of high office, therefore, leads to the reduction of societal benefit. On the other hand, there is a corresponding illegitimate increase in individual or parochial benefits. Overall, parochialism leads to lop-sided public service, where some segments of society benefit while others don't.
Other forms of corruption may include the extortion of different forms of benefit from others. For instance, public officials may blackmail the recipients for payment or conferment of benefit instead of delivering public service to citizens. Such a scenario would amount to corruption, as the public official dishonestly uses their powers for illegitimate self-advancement (Mahmood et al., 2019). Similarly, corruption could also be in the form of bribery, wherein public officers make unauthorized demands for payment from service recipients. Thus, citizens are forced to pay for services that they need not pay for. At the same time, the officials assigned to offer such services derive illegitimate benefits. Summarily, all the different variations of corruption involve the illegal and unethical use of office to access illegitimate individual gain.
Implications of Corruption in Government Systems
Corruption within the systems of government has several implications for countries. To begin with, corruption as the gaining of illegitimate benefit at the public expense reduces overall gain for society. Practices such as the embezzlement of public funds lead to the depletion of resources that should benefit society. In the end, such public resources are illegitimately redirected towards individual benefit. Corruption in government systems of many developing nations has led to reduced public benefits (Barkemeyer et al., 2018). Consequently, the redirection of resources from public coffers has resulted in poor public services. A scenario of such would be where officers tasked with revenue collection, or budgeting, opt to redirect public funds to their accounts. Health services, education systems, security operations, and many other public benefits would be affected as a result. Even as this happens, the public officers in question would be gaining.
Secondly, corruption in government systems has the effect of increasing inequality in society. The diversion of public resources and benefits towards individual gain increases the gap between the poor and the rich in an economy. By illegitimately accessing the benefits meant for the public, individual officeholders continue to impoverish the majority for the benefit of a few (Anum, 2018). For instance, the corrupt practices of embezzlement of funds, or cronyism, or even parochialism concentrate on benefitting a few. The end result of this is the increase in the well being of the few and the simultaneous disadvantage of the remaining majority. Consequences of the corrupt practices would include undesirable outcomes such as delays in salaries for public servants or even inadequacy in the delivery of vital services. From these, the poor majority will have lower qualities of life, while the minority would increase their welfare.
Corruption within government systems can lead to the erosion of the social fabric in nations. For example, in countries with a high incidence of corruption, public officers would be interested in their own gain. Thus every public officer at each level of government would be interested in increasing their own benefit at the expense of their job. As a result, a chain of the disorder may break in society wherein services are inefficient. In such situations, each individual would only focus on their own gratification resulting in anarchy (Damoah et al., 2018) . Public officers would be involved in outright extortion of citizens, wanton embezzlement, and unabated parochialism. In the end, the enforcement of laws and rules, as well as the maintenance of public order, may be difficult due to focus on self- rather than collective- interests.
Addressing Corruption in Government Systems
Evidently, if unchecked and unabated, corruption in government systems may lead to undesirable consequences for society. Such may include a shortage of basic commodities, and crippling of public services, hence the breakdown of society. As such, governments around the world must take deliberate measures to fight corruption. Among such measures would be the creation of policies and legislation calling for greater transparency. Thus public officers would be subjected to measures such as wealth declaration and declaration of interests. As a result of these information technology aided disclosures, it would be easier to audit the lifestyle of public officers (Mahmood et al., 2019). These proactive actions would aid in limiting the illegitimate benefit from public resources and opportunities. Secondly, it would be needful for government systems to put in place mechanisms of monitoring public resource management. Vigilance in the process of managing public resources is an effective means of preventing corruption. Vocal institutions such as the media, civil society organizations, and opposition parties would be helpful herein. Such institutions would lead the charges in ensuring government accountability (Slemrod, 2016). Consequently, the tendency to use public office for illegitimate self-gain would reduce.
The reduction of corruption in government systems would also be aided by the creation of a national anti-corruption mindset. In this way, countries would adopt an ethos against corruption, wherein integrity and ethics would be inculcated in children at an early age. Effectively, therefore, the members of society would be ethically responsible. The holders of public offices would also conduct their duties with diligence and integrity (Gherasim & Ionescu, 2019). The overall focus for such officers would then be on the maximization of social gain rather than individual benefit. Additionally, stiffer guidelines need to be formulated and adopted as a punishment for corruption. The adoption of such measures would serve as a disincentive for public officers who would have engaged in corruption while deterring any continued engagement among existing culprits. Preventive measures, just as much as punitive measures, would be crucial resources in the war against corruption in government systems ( Aluko & Aderinola, 2019 ).
Conclusion
Corruption refers to the dishonesty in the conduct of public duty. In connection to government systems, corruption connotes criminally dishonest conduct by a person entrusted with a position of power. Such persons aim to increase their personal benefit without regard for the public good. The phenomenon entails the improper, and often illegal, use of public office to earn individual benefits. Corruption within government systems comes in various forms, including improper use of office to influence employment. This involves practices of patronage such as nepotism, which is the employment of one's skin, and cronyism, which is the employment of one's friends. Corruption could also manifest in the form of parochialism, which may include embezzlement of public funds and peddling of influence. Other forms of corruption include the extortion of different forms of benefit from others. Corruption could also be in the form of bribery.
Government corruption has different implications for society. For one, corruption within the systems of government has several implications for countries. The practice also leads to the depletion of resources that should benefit society and the lowering of standards of living for the public. Moreover, it also leads to an increase in the levels of inequality in society. To combat corruption in government systems, measures to be taken would include the adoption of a high standard of integrity. Others may include increased vigilance in the management of public resources, and greater freedom of expression to allow for proper oversight.
References
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