According to the Corruption Perception Index of 2015, researched
by Transparency International, 68 percent of countries around the world have
critical corruption issues (Corruption Perception Index 2015, 2015) . Corruption is a
serious problem that humanity has faced and still facing for a long time. It is
a barrier to democracy, the achievement of prosperity, political and
socioeconomic stability. Corruption happens around the world every day,
affecting the lives of millions of people, halting the advancement of civilizations,
making developing countries undeveloped and developed countries hypocrites. Corruption is the result
of unethical behavior and actions, that an individual or group take to satisfy
their self-interest, ignoring the short and long-term consequences that are
caused by their decisions. Sometimes, these consequences are not significantly
severe and tend to be ignored, others can be very severe, affecting a large
number of people and factors. Significant consequences are resulted when the
corrupt individual or group have a big role in society, in which they control
many aspects that depend on their decisions, such as politicians and
businessman. This paper will be
discussing corruption cases that have an impact on the world economy. It will
explain why corruption might be a barrier to democracy, and how on the other hand
it can be crucial for the existence of democracy, and what can be done to
eliminate it or prevent corruption from happening, through a series of examples
and evidence.
Worldwide and large scale corruption can be broken down to three
main types, which are political corruption, business corruption, and mixed
corruption; which means involving unethical deals between governments and
businesses. Some of most recent corruption cases are the theft of oil money and
anti-terrorism funds in Nigeria, bribery and governments’ accounts manipulation
in Brazil, bribery and fraud practices by FIFA officials, tax evasion and
unethical offshoring by many leaders revealed by the Panama Papers, and illegal
contract securing bribery; between oil extraction facilitator and contractor Unaoil
and Iraqi government officials, and tax evasion by unethical offshoring
revealed by the Panama Papers.
The first example of political corruption
is the
theft of Nigerian oil and government’s anti-terrorist operations funds. Revenues
from oil sales in Nigeria makes up seventy five percent of the Nigerian
economy, but Nigerian economists cannot get an accurate estimate of how much
oil is being produced, because thousands of oil barrels produced are stolen by
unknown groups and individuals (Can Nigeria's president defeat
oil industry corruption?, 2015) . Difficult part of
solving corruption issues is being able to identify the source, because it’s
hard to hold anyone accountable, since it’s done by many people. However,
sometimes it’s possible to trace where the money or assets are being used. The
current Nigerian president has called for the arrest of the former security
advisor Sambo Dasuki, for stealing $2 billion dollars that were assigned to
fund military equipment purchase, in order to fight the terrorist group Boko
Haram (O'Grady, 2015) . Tracing where a
certain fund has ended up is one way of identifying the source, if it was not
used for its purpose. The result of losing government funds due to theft by
officials, causes devastation to the economy and hinder the goal of these
funds, when funds did not go into purchasing weapons to fight Boko Harram,
military operations failed, therefore allowing these terrorists take wide areas
of Nigeria, killing hundreds of people, plus taking over oil fields and private
properties. When the Nigerian government loses the money due to oil and funds
theft, it is difficult to pay employees’ salaries and fund their budget, the
education system, health system, infrastructure, resulting in over sixty
percent poverty (Can Nigeria's president defeat
oil industry corruption?, 2015) . High rate of
poverty, indicates the failure of achieving democracy. When it comes gaining
large sums of money, some individuals tend to get blinded by it and ignore
basic life ethics, laws, and consequences, hurting many others who depend on
for their basic life necessities. At some point, these corruptive actions gets revealed
by the system, when it is enlightened enough.
The second example of political corruption, is the bribery and
governments accounts manipulation in Brazil. Public funds were unlawfully used
by governments officials in a corruption scheme investigators called “Mensalao”, to bribe congress
members to gain their vote in important government decisions (Rousseff
impeachment: How did Brazil get here?, 2016) . Politicians purchase votes
that will serve their interest by draining the public funds of the country, in
which could be used to invest in improving the economy. When the society is
enlightened enough such as in Brazil, it will revolve and put emphasis on
identifying and stopping corruption. The current Brazilian president Rousseff
got impeached and could be removed from office, for manipulating the government’s
accounts in 2014, she denies such actions and accuse her opponents for using
this idea to take her position (Rousseff impeachment: How did Brazil get here?,
2016) . Denial and reversing the
accusations are ways for corrupt individuals to get out of the trouble. Many member of congress who are currently
serving were associated with corruptive acts, and they are going to be charged
for bribery, and electoral fraud (Pecanha & Romero, 2016) . Normally, a corruption
action takes place between two parties, in this case a bribery takes place
between the briber whom are the government officials and the acceptor whom are
the congress members. Corruption does not only exist in governments, it widely
exist in business as well.
Business
corruption can be as sever and dangerous as government corruption, especially
if a certain corrupt business impact the society in so many ways, such as financially,
environmentally, and ideologically.
An example of recent business corruption
would be the FIFA scandal, in which fourteen company officials and executives were convicted by
police, for a request by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Siciliano
& jamieson, 2016) . Through enough investigation
and tracing of evidence of unlawful deals, law enforcement can identify
business corruption. When a business is structurally corrupt, it is important to
question the highest authority of that business, such the president or CEO. In
this case, FIFA president Sepp Blatter was suspended for eight years for paying
over $2 million to Platini, the president of the Union of European Football
Associations, in 2011 (O'Grady, 2015) . Corrupt business is sometime
the reflection of a corrupt leader or businessman. The investigation in the FIFA scandal
reveal more than just a corrupt leader, but also so many other corrupt
practices by officials, who either bribing or accepting bribery, game selling
to certain nations that want to host it, and these practices took place around
the world, such as North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean (O'Grady, 2015) . The consequences of
the corruption in this case does not seem to have a significant impact on the
world economy, however, it did effect other nations that could have benefited
from hosting the soccer games, if the selection process was fair, money that
used in bribery could have been used to improve business conditions and
invested in community projects. Business corruption tend to have a more
significant impact when it involves governments as part of the corruption,
which makes it a mixed corruption.
Mixed Corruption is when a business corporation and governments
make deals unlawfully, for the self-gain of individuals or groups that work in
either sides. These individuals or groups ignore the constitutional laws,
policies and regulations to achieve profitable deals, such as awarding business
contracts to control oil fields for key turn projects, giving unfair investment
opportunities in exchange for a bribe.
An example of mixed corruption is
the corruption of the Australian corporation Unaoil, which is an industry
facilitator and contractor that provides industrial projects facilitation,
specifically oil, through linking governments in Middle-East, Central Asia and
Africa with the technology companies around the world (Ahsani, n.d.) . Investigation by
Fairfax Media and the Huffington Post, discovered that government contracts
worth billions of dollars were awarded unfairly, by bribes paid on behalf of
tech giant companies such as Rolls Royce, Halliburton, and Samsung, revealing
that Unaoil has provided the proper connection for such deals to take place (McKenzie,
Baker, Bachelard, & Quinlan, 2016) . Unaoil abusing the
concept of Facilitating Payments, in which it’s using it to securing contracts
deals with corrupt government officials who accept these payments, but in
terms, these payments are bribes because they do not end up in government
treasury or investment, instead it’s transferred to private banks that serves
those corrupt officials According to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the
OECD convention on bribery, facilitating payments are allowed, but not when
it’s used to secure contracts and get special treatment (Hill, 2015) . The report confirms that Iraqi minister of
oil, Hussein al-Shahristani had accepted millions of dollars in bribes, to
allow for the awarding of contracts to Unaoil (Iraq to probe claims of Unaoil
corruption against top officials, 2016) . Government officials
abusing their power and taking advantage of the weak communications, poor check
and balance structure in the government, in order to benefit themselves,
accepting bribes that is only making the system even more corrupt. The scandal
was discovered from a number of leaked emails, that provided evidence of
communications between the corrupt parties, discussing the deal, receiving
payments and making illegal agreements (Shankar, 2016) . The government officials, Unaoil and
other businesses involved are denying the existence of such corruption, even
though there more than one evidence to prove it. As bad as this corruption
sounds, some economists argue it’s sometime vital for the growth of the economy
in hostile, developing countries, by providing the opportunities of investment
to create jobs and business transactions (Hill, 2015) .
However, it can create unfair investment competition, it can serve politicians
agendas. When business has to pay large sums of money to invest in foreign country, it incur a large
expense, which in turn reduce the business profitability, making it an
unfavorable investing environment.
Another example of mixed corruption,
except this one is arguably beneficial to the world economy and international
business in some ways, however, it does not mean it is ethical or has no
negative impact on the society. This corruption case is called the Panama Papers.
As it is described on the dedicated website, it says that it is a “A giant leak
of more than 11.5 million financial and legal records exposes a system that
enables crime, corruption and wrongdoing, hidden by secretive offshore
companies” (The International Consortium of
Investigative Journalsts, 2016) . It’s described by the ICIJ, the International Consortium of Investigative
Journalsts, as the discovery of large amount of documents, that shows
transfer accounts and offshoring deals, created by a lot of famous and
non-famous politicians and businessmen. The Panama Papers reveals that there is
a firm called Mossack Fonseca based in Panama that control a lot of offshoring
services around the world, such as in Switzerland, Cyprus, and the British
Virgin Island, it makes these places a tax havens for those who deposit their
large sums of cash in its affiliated shell banks, it is exploited by 143
corrupt and non-corrupt politicians to evade paying taxes on their incomes (Harding,
2016) .
The unintended consequences can have a negative impact on some governments’
budget, in which tax revenues are collected to be used in public services and
welfare, however, it can be beneficial to the economies of countries that it’s
being invested in or offshored to (El-Erian, 2016) . The tax avoidance can cause a loss of
government revenues, it cause frustration to tax payers who think it is unfair
that the wealthy get to become even wealthier by exploiting a crooked system. The
money that these rich and unethical individuals deposit in foreign countries,
is helping these countries’ economic growth such as in Cyprus and Switzerland,
supporting the achievement of democracy and prosperity. Nevertheless, it does
not make it ethical to evade taxation and or hide the actual income of these
wealthy individual, in which they do to repel suspicion of where they get it
from.
Corruption is the reflection of the unethical
behavior of government officials and businessman. While a certain corrupt deal
may not have a significant impact on the economy or the international business,
it’s still a reflection of how unethical and careless these individuals are.
Unethical and careless politicians provide poor service to the society that
depend on them. Businessmen that perform unethically can reduce their business
productivity, create hostile work environment, negatively impacting their
stakeholders. When unethical politicians and government officials meet together
to make an illegal deal, they diminish democracy. Large scale corruption can be
broken down to three main types, corruption in government, between politicians;
corruption in business, between businessmen; and corruption between government
and businessmen. Some examples that this paper discusses are the theft of
Nigerian oil by politicians, manipulation of government accounts and the
purchase of votes in Brazil, fraud practices by FIFA, bribery to award or gain
business contracts between Unaoil Company and Iraqi government, and tax evasion
by offshoring revealed by the Panama Papers.
The conclusion of this paper is that corruption
creates a barrier to democracy, the transparency in governments, the growth of
economies, the creation of fair and healthy business environment, and the
achievement of prosperity. Identifying the source of corruption might be a
difficult task, but with persistence and tracing evidence, it can be achieved.
Enlightenment in the society, can help eliminate corruption. Enlightenment can
be achieved with good education and dedication. International cooperation and
awareness is crucial in eliminating corruption. Some corruption scandals may
not have a significant impact on the world economies, but some other can put
many people’s lives in jeopardy, hindering the advancement of society and
civilizations, allowing for terrorism, wars, poverty and hunger, and unfair or
hostile business environment. Although some argue that corruption sometimes
help democracy, it is still outweighed by the negative effects of corruption. Denial
and manipulation of evidence are tools used by the corrupt individuals to
escape punishment, making hard to hold anyone accountable for the sever issues
that a country or a business have. No corruption case should be ignored,
because if it does not have a direct impact, it might be a reflection of a
spoiled system, a signal for change to improve the political and economic state
of a country.
According to the Corruption Perception Index of 2015, researched
by Transparency International, 68 percent of countries around the world have
critical corruption issues (Corruption Perception Index 2015, 2015) . Corruption is a
serious problem that humanity has faced and still facing for a long time. It is
a barrier to democracy, the achievement of prosperity, political and
socioeconomic stability. Corruption happens around the world every day,
affecting the lives of millions of people, halting the advancement of civilizations,
making developing countries undeveloped and developed countries hypocrites. Corruption is the result
of unethical behavior and actions, that an individual or group take to satisfy
their self-interest, ignoring the short and long-term consequences that are
caused by their decisions. Sometimes, these consequences are not significantly
severe and tend to be ignored, others can be very severe, affecting a large
number of people and factors. Significant consequences are resulted when the
corrupt individual or group have a big role in society, in which they control
many aspects that depend on their decisions, such as politicians and
businessman. This paper will be
discussing corruption cases that have an impact on the world economy. It will
explain why corruption might be a barrier to democracy, and how on the other hand
it can be crucial for the existence of democracy, and what can be done to
eliminate it or prevent corruption from happening, through a series of examples
and evidence.
Worldwide and large scale corruption can be broken down to three
main types, which are political corruption, business corruption, and mixed
corruption; which means involving unethical deals between governments and
businesses. Some of most recent corruption cases are the theft of oil money and
anti-terrorism funds in Nigeria, bribery and governments’ accounts manipulation
in Brazil, bribery and fraud practices by FIFA officials, tax evasion and
unethical offshoring by many leaders revealed by the Panama Papers, and illegal
contract securing bribery; between oil extraction facilitator and contractor Unaoil
and Iraqi government officials, and tax evasion by unethical offshoring
revealed by the Panama Papers.
The first example of political corruption is the theft of Nigerian oil and government’s anti-terrorist operations funds. Revenues from oil sales in Nigeria makes up seventy five percent of the Nigerian economy, but Nigerian economists cannot get an accurate estimate of how much oil is being produced, because thousands of oil barrels produced are stolen by unknown groups and individuals (Can Nigeria's president defeat
oil industry corruption?, 2015) . Difficult part of
solving corruption issues is being able to identify the source, because it’s
hard to hold anyone accountable, since it’s done by many people. However,
sometimes it’s possible to trace where the money or assets are being used. The
current Nigerian president has called for the arrest of the former security
advisor Sambo Dasuki, for stealing $2 billion dollars that were assigned to
fund military equipment purchase, in order to fight the terrorist group Boko
Haram (O'Grady, 2015) . Tracing where a
certain fund has ended up is one way of identifying the source, if it was not
used for its purpose. The result of losing government funds due to theft by
officials, causes devastation to the economy and hinder the goal of these
funds, when funds did not go into purchasing weapons to fight Boko Harram,
military operations failed, therefore allowing these terrorists take wide areas
of Nigeria, killing hundreds of people, plus taking over oil fields and private
properties. When the Nigerian government loses the money due to oil and funds
theft, it is difficult to pay employees’ salaries and fund their budget, the
education system, health system, infrastructure, resulting in over sixty
percent poverty (Can Nigeria's president defeat
oil industry corruption?, 2015) . High rate of
poverty, indicates the failure of achieving democracy. When it comes gaining
large sums of money, some individuals tend to get blinded by it and ignore
basic life ethics, laws, and consequences, hurting many others who depend on
for their basic life necessities. At some point, these corruptive actions gets revealed
by the system, when it is enlightened enough.
The first example of political corruption is the theft of Nigerian oil and government’s anti-terrorist operations funds. Revenues from oil sales in Nigeria makes up seventy five percent of the Nigerian economy, but Nigerian economists cannot get an accurate estimate of how much oil is being produced, because thousands of oil barrels produced are stolen by unknown groups and individuals
The second example of political corruption, is the bribery and
governments accounts manipulation in Brazil. Public funds were unlawfully used
by governments officials in a corruption scheme investigators called “Mensalao”, to bribe congress
members to gain their vote in important government decisions (Rousseff
impeachment: How did Brazil get here?, 2016) . Politicians purchase votes
that will serve their interest by draining the public funds of the country, in
which could be used to invest in improving the economy. When the society is
enlightened enough such as in Brazil, it will revolve and put emphasis on
identifying and stopping corruption. The current Brazilian president Rousseff
got impeached and could be removed from office, for manipulating the government’s
accounts in 2014, she denies such actions and accuse her opponents for using
this idea to take her position (Rousseff impeachment: How did Brazil get here?,
2016) . Denial and reversing the
accusations are ways for corrupt individuals to get out of the trouble. Many member of congress who are currently
serving were associated with corruptive acts, and they are going to be charged
for bribery, and electoral fraud (Pecanha & Romero, 2016) . Normally, a corruption
action takes place between two parties, in this case a bribery takes place
between the briber whom are the government officials and the acceptor whom are
the congress members. Corruption does not only exist in governments, it widely
exist in business as well.
Business
corruption can be as sever and dangerous as government corruption, especially
if a certain corrupt business impact the society in so many ways, such as financially,
environmentally, and ideologically.
An example of recent business corruption would be the FIFA scandal, in which fourteen company officials and executives were convicted by police, for a request by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Siciliano
& jamieson, 2016) . Through enough investigation
and tracing of evidence of unlawful deals, law enforcement can identify
business corruption. When a business is structurally corrupt, it is important to
question the highest authority of that business, such the president or CEO. In
this case, FIFA president Sepp Blatter was suspended for eight years for paying
over $2 million to Platini, the president of the Union of European Football
Associations, in 2011 (O'Grady, 2015) . Corrupt business is sometime
the reflection of a corrupt leader or businessman. The investigation in the FIFA scandal
reveal more than just a corrupt leader, but also so many other corrupt
practices by officials, who either bribing or accepting bribery, game selling
to certain nations that want to host it, and these practices took place around
the world, such as North America, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean (O'Grady, 2015) . The consequences of
the corruption in this case does not seem to have a significant impact on the
world economy, however, it did effect other nations that could have benefited
from hosting the soccer games, if the selection process was fair, money that
used in bribery could have been used to improve business conditions and
invested in community projects. Business corruption tend to have a more
significant impact when it involves governments as part of the corruption,
which makes it a mixed corruption.
An example of recent business corruption would be the FIFA scandal, in which fourteen company officials and executives were convicted by police, for a request by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Mixed Corruption is when a business corporation and governments
make deals unlawfully, for the self-gain of individuals or groups that work in
either sides. These individuals or groups ignore the constitutional laws,
policies and regulations to achieve profitable deals, such as awarding business
contracts to control oil fields for key turn projects, giving unfair investment
opportunities in exchange for a bribe.
An example of mixed corruption is the corruption of the Australian corporation Unaoil, which is an industry facilitator and contractor that provides industrial projects facilitation, specifically oil, through linking governments in Middle-East, Central Asia and Africa with the technology companies around the world (Ahsani, n.d.) . Investigation by
Fairfax Media and the Huffington Post, discovered that government contracts
worth billions of dollars were awarded unfairly, by bribes paid on behalf of
tech giant companies such as Rolls Royce, Halliburton, and Samsung, revealing
that Unaoil has provided the proper connection for such deals to take place (McKenzie,
Baker, Bachelard, & Quinlan, 2016) . Unaoil abusing the
concept of Facilitating Payments, in which it’s using it to securing contracts
deals with corrupt government officials who accept these payments, but in
terms, these payments are bribes because they do not end up in government
treasury or investment, instead it’s transferred to private banks that serves
those corrupt officials According to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the
OECD convention on bribery, facilitating payments are allowed, but not when
it’s used to secure contracts and get special treatment (Hill, 2015) . The report confirms that Iraqi minister of
oil, Hussein al-Shahristani had accepted millions of dollars in bribes, to
allow for the awarding of contracts to Unaoil (Iraq to probe claims of Unaoil
corruption against top officials, 2016) . Government officials
abusing their power and taking advantage of the weak communications, poor check
and balance structure in the government, in order to benefit themselves,
accepting bribes that is only making the system even more corrupt. The scandal
was discovered from a number of leaked emails, that provided evidence of
communications between the corrupt parties, discussing the deal, receiving
payments and making illegal agreements (Shankar, 2016) . The government officials, Unaoil and
other businesses involved are denying the existence of such corruption, even
though there more than one evidence to prove it. As bad as this corruption
sounds, some economists argue it’s sometime vital for the growth of the economy
in hostile, developing countries, by providing the opportunities of investment
to create jobs and business transactions (Hill, 2015) .
However, it can create unfair investment competition, it can serve politicians
agendas. When business has to pay large sums of money to invest in foreign country, it incur a large
expense, which in turn reduce the business profitability, making it an
unfavorable investing environment.
Another example of mixed corruption, except this one is arguably beneficial to the world economy and international business in some ways, however, it does not mean it is ethical or has no negative impact on the society. This corruption case is called the Panama Papers. As it is described on the dedicated website, it says that it is a “A giant leak of more than 11.5 million financial and legal records exposes a system that enables crime, corruption and wrongdoing, hidden by secretive offshore companies” (The International Consortium of
Investigative Journalsts, 2016) . It’s described by the ICIJ, the International Consortium of Investigative
Journalsts, as the discovery of large amount of documents, that shows
transfer accounts and offshoring deals, created by a lot of famous and
non-famous politicians and businessmen. The Panama Papers reveals that there is
a firm called Mossack Fonseca based in Panama that control a lot of offshoring
services around the world, such as in Switzerland, Cyprus, and the British
Virgin Island, it makes these places a tax havens for those who deposit their
large sums of cash in its affiliated shell banks, it is exploited by 143
corrupt and non-corrupt politicians to evade paying taxes on their incomes (Harding,
2016) .
The unintended consequences can have a negative impact on some governments’
budget, in which tax revenues are collected to be used in public services and
welfare, however, it can be beneficial to the economies of countries that it’s
being invested in or offshored to (El-Erian, 2016) . The tax avoidance can cause a loss of
government revenues, it cause frustration to tax payers who think it is unfair
that the wealthy get to become even wealthier by exploiting a crooked system. The
money that these rich and unethical individuals deposit in foreign countries,
is helping these countries’ economic growth such as in Cyprus and Switzerland,
supporting the achievement of democracy and prosperity. Nevertheless, it does
not make it ethical to evade taxation and or hide the actual income of these
wealthy individual, in which they do to repel suspicion of where they get it
from.
Corruption is the reflection of the unethical behavior of government officials and businessman. While a certain corrupt deal may not have a significant impact on the economy or the international business, it’s still a reflection of how unethical and careless these individuals are. Unethical and careless politicians provide poor service to the society that depend on them. Businessmen that perform unethically can reduce their business productivity, create hostile work environment, negatively impacting their stakeholders. When unethical politicians and government officials meet together to make an illegal deal, they diminish democracy. Large scale corruption can be broken down to three main types, corruption in government, between politicians; corruption in business, between businessmen; and corruption between government and businessmen. Some examples that this paper discusses are the theft of Nigerian oil by politicians, manipulation of government accounts and the purchase of votes in Brazil, fraud practices by FIFA, bribery to award or gain business contracts between Unaoil Company and Iraqi government, and tax evasion by offshoring revealed by the Panama Papers.
The conclusion of this paper is that corruption creates a barrier to democracy, the transparency in governments, the growth of economies, the creation of fair and healthy business environment, and the achievement of prosperity. Identifying the source of corruption might be a difficult task, but with persistence and tracing evidence, it can be achieved. Enlightenment in the society, can help eliminate corruption. Enlightenment can be achieved with good education and dedication. International cooperation and awareness is crucial in eliminating corruption. Some corruption scandals may not have a significant impact on the world economies, but some other can put many people’s lives in jeopardy, hindering the advancement of society and civilizations, allowing for terrorism, wars, poverty and hunger, and unfair or hostile business environment. Although some argue that corruption sometimes help democracy, it is still outweighed by the negative effects of corruption. Denial and manipulation of evidence are tools used by the corrupt individuals to escape punishment, making hard to hold anyone accountable for the sever issues that a country or a business have. No corruption case should be ignored, because if it does not have a direct impact, it might be a reflection of a spoiled system, a signal for change to improve the political and economic state of a country.
An example of mixed corruption is the corruption of the Australian corporation Unaoil, which is an industry facilitator and contractor that provides industrial projects facilitation, specifically oil, through linking governments in Middle-East, Central Asia and Africa with the technology companies around the world
Another example of mixed corruption, except this one is arguably beneficial to the world economy and international business in some ways, however, it does not mean it is ethical or has no negative impact on the society. This corruption case is called the Panama Papers. As it is described on the dedicated website, it says that it is a “A giant leak of more than 11.5 million financial and legal records exposes a system that enables crime, corruption and wrongdoing, hidden by secretive offshore companies”
Corruption is the reflection of the unethical behavior of government officials and businessman. While a certain corrupt deal may not have a significant impact on the economy or the international business, it’s still a reflection of how unethical and careless these individuals are. Unethical and careless politicians provide poor service to the society that depend on them. Businessmen that perform unethically can reduce their business productivity, create hostile work environment, negatively impacting their stakeholders. When unethical politicians and government officials meet together to make an illegal deal, they diminish democracy. Large scale corruption can be broken down to three main types, corruption in government, between politicians; corruption in business, between businessmen; and corruption between government and businessmen. Some examples that this paper discusses are the theft of Nigerian oil by politicians, manipulation of government accounts and the purchase of votes in Brazil, fraud practices by FIFA, bribery to award or gain business contracts between Unaoil Company and Iraqi government, and tax evasion by offshoring revealed by the Panama Papers.
The conclusion of this paper is that corruption creates a barrier to democracy, the transparency in governments, the growth of economies, the creation of fair and healthy business environment, and the achievement of prosperity. Identifying the source of corruption might be a difficult task, but with persistence and tracing evidence, it can be achieved. Enlightenment in the society, can help eliminate corruption. Enlightenment can be achieved with good education and dedication. International cooperation and awareness is crucial in eliminating corruption. Some corruption scandals may not have a significant impact on the world economies, but some other can put many people’s lives in jeopardy, hindering the advancement of society and civilizations, allowing for terrorism, wars, poverty and hunger, and unfair or hostile business environment. Although some argue that corruption sometimes help democracy, it is still outweighed by the negative effects of corruption. Denial and manipulation of evidence are tools used by the corrupt individuals to escape punishment, making hard to hold anyone accountable for the sever issues that a country or a business have. No corruption case should be ignored, because if it does not have a direct impact, it might be a reflection of a spoiled system, a signal for change to improve the political and economic state of a country.
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O'Grady, S. (2015, December 29). News and Ideas.
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