Corruption and Governance - Ethical Considerations

Corruption and Governance - Ethical Considerations

-Dr. Lalit Kumar

I am writing this content particularly to let others know and consider the connections of ethics and values in Governance and Mal-practices known as Corruption in the Systems. The goal of Government is to provide access to public services to each common man and for this purpose departments and organizations are set-up. Government is constantly improving the systems through ensuring Transparency, Governance, Quality, Responsiveness in the Systems. But there are always use, misuse or abuse of financial resources, administrative powers, and other authorities and interventions for private gains with abusing trust and intentional violation of duty (reference to Mostert S, Sitaresmi MN, Njuguna F, van Beers EJ, Kaspers GJ. Effect of corruption on medical care in low-income countries. Pediatr Blood Cancer. 2012;58(3):325–6).

In other words, I may not be wrong if I put it as follows:

Corruption = f (Governance)

Corruption is the function of Governance. And

Governance = f (Ethics, Values)

Governance is the function of Ethics and Values.

Corruption and Governance:

Needless to say, the Government in every economy is committed to raise the level of Governance to combat corruption. It is fact that the Governance improves through transparency because, the transparency enables the authorities to grab the corrupt-practices and corrupt people and punish them as per the rules, regulations, and laws. The corruption is a great hurdle in the economic development and the decisions to control corruption i.e. anti-corruption efforts of public authorities improve prosperity, enhance security, and promote transparency. It is required to have a look at 'How Corruption is becoming an alarming issue and decisions are being taken to improve transparency in Governance Systems'.

How Mal-practices grow in the Public Sector Organizations:

There are different forms of corrupt practices resulted from unethical behaviours of the stake-holders of Public Sector Organizations such as absenteeism, bribery, informal payments to get work done, use of resources, access, and utilization of services etc.

Such mal-practices or modes of corruption directly and sometimes indirectly increases the financial burden on the poor households of the economy who are not enough capable to stand with the mal-practices for getting their works done and they further become poorer. The economic inequalities increase which led to crime, unemployment, regional disparities and other economic problems.

How Governance contain Mal-practices?

The Governance promotes transparency and fix the accountability, promotes citizen participation in public services (such as using Citizen Charter), initiatives for containing corruption (such as use of e-payments in Government), and Laws and Regulations of anti-corruption (such as Right to Information Act).

The Social Audit is also a good tool for identifying the corruption in Government organizations.

If good governance principles and structures are not in place, this provides greater opportunity for corruption. Corruption, in turn, can prevent good governance principles and structures from being put in place, or enforced. Violations of the principles of transparency, accountability and rule of law appear to be most closely associated with corruption. In the end, corruption and poor governance are security challenges which undermine democracy, the rule of law and economic development. (Reference to an Article on “Corruption and Bad Governance” in Anti-Corruption Module 2: Corruption and Good Governance of UNODC organization).

Fighting Corruptions with Inculcating Values and Ethical Considerations:

A Course on “Ethics and Values in Financial Administration” is framed particularly to inculcate the values, sensitize the officers for ethical considerations, never committing mis-conduct, and fight corruption at all levels of service delivery in the organizations. It is fact that in newspapers, we read most of the times that there are allegations of fraud and corruption and most of the times, the employees found guilty and suspended by the authorities. It is important to put in place the Standard Operating Procedures keeping in view Result oriented Frameworks, to prevent mal-practices and also to fix the accountability of the officers with enforcement mechanisms strong enough to contain the corrupt practices (if any).

Covid-19 Pandemic and Challenge of inculcating Ethics and Values:

With the pandemic of Covid-19, the expenses to contain it, and also to ensure fast economic activities within government organizations, the rules and regulations can be mis-used easily if Governance levels are low in the system. The corrupt activities can increase the wastage of resources, theft of store items and assets, and misuse of cash as well as other financial resources.

Course on Ethics and Values in Financial Administration:

Purpose

The main objective of the above course is to build and enhance the capacities of officers to ensure the compliance of Financial Rules, Ethics and Values in conduct of employees, and effective Financial Administration as per the latest directions of Government.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

•     Describe the role of Ethics and Values in the Conduct of Employees and ensuring the compliance.

•     Describe and ensure the compliance of Punjab Financial Rules including Cannons of Financial Proprieties.

•     Describe the rules for maintenance of Cash Book, utilization of Financial Resources, Use of e-Governance i.e. Online Budgeting, e-Billing and HRMS for Effective Financial Administration.

The topics which are to be covered include Ethics and Values in Financial Administration, Duties and Responsibilities of Finance Officers & DDOs, Governance and Financial Considerations at Workspace, Financial Rules for Cash Management, Ethics and Values in Administrative Functions, Financial Administration with Online Budgeting, e-Governance Using HRMS, e-Governance Using e-Billing, and FAQs for clarifying the doubts of the participants. 

Corruption and Governance in Countries:

Corruption and Governance in Countries

Pakistan:

In February, 2019 Shahbaz Sharif, a political leader of Pakistan indicted by an accountability court for Rs. 1400 crores due to corruption in a housing project. The Pakistan's ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif appeared before an anti-graft court and faced trials in corruption cases. 

India:

Indian Government adopted demonetization and use of information technology without keeping in mind the demographic profile of citizens of India. The Niti Aayog is hiring around 65 odd young professionals (YPs) to assist it in framing policies of Governance more strategically. Due to decisions of GST, Indians suffered less trade (immediately after the enforcement of Goods and Services Tax). The decision of Demonetization suddenly inable the Indians to use their own deposited money and they stand in queue outside banks for the withdraw of new currency notes. This all happened to get rid of corruption.

Corruption and Governance in Indian Banking Sector: 

It is fact that the number of fraud cases in India increased with involving the banking sector and the country faced corruption from the reputed people involved in trade and business at higher levels in the country. The source of such frauds was loans provided by the banks and use of ‘Letter of Credit (LCs)’, Letter of Undertaking, and Letter of Acceptance i.e. ‘Off-Balance Sheet Items’.

In order to grab such practices, the rules pertaining to such items made strict and legal actions initiated to the people who proved guilty in spite of their departure from the country.

United States of America:

The President of United States is discouraging foreigners to be settled there by making the rules of Visa stricter. He also involved in trade war to expand the exports of economy and reduce the trade deficit. No doubt, the efforts have been made to increase the trade of Americans and to raise their standards of living. It also increased the transparency and governance by use of information technology in public systems.

China:

China is known for its exports in various countries and during last three decades, it expanded its trade in entire world. The policy of ‘Made in China’ and domestic production of the economy is too high to spread its products and services around the world. The policy decisions are implemented with transparency and accountability with strict rules.

Saudi Arabia:

The Saudi Arabia’s king (Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince) arrested Saudi Arabia's royals, ministers and investors in an anti-corruption purge. The strict rules to combat corruption and action towards corrupt people in spite of their strong roots, made the economy comes into light of the nations for its bold decisions.

Maldives:

In February, 2019 the Maldives court ordered to arrest former president, Abdulla Yameen, for allegations of money laundering. The allegations were in respect of receiving a sum of $1 million government money, through a private company.

Overall, the corruption includes the illegal and immoral activities and it is a sign of weak governance.

Conclusion:

No doubt, the authorities and power in the hands of rulers made them stronger. The use of power either in promoting corruption or in combating corruption through Governance; is always the choice of the rulers. Most of the nations moved to ‘zero tolerance’ towards corruption. The big industrialists faced challenges due to tightening of Good Governance initiatives around the world and the initiatives are continuously increasing with the use of technology.

*Copyright © 2020 Dr. Lalit Kumar. A few rights reserved. Use this information in the public interest.

This content is written by Dr. Lalit Kumar Setia; a renowned author and trainer. He completed his Doctorate in Commerce from Kurukshetra University Kurukshetra and MBA in Information Technology from GJU, Hisar. He also wrote two books, 15 research papers, and organized more than 200 Training Courses during his working period since 2006 in Haryana Institute of Public Administration, Gurugram. The article was published on 2020. The writer can be contacted on lalitkumarsetia@gmail.com 

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