Corruption And It’s Influence

The most straightforward definition of corruption is the misuse of available resources. Another report that comes to mind for public officeholders is prioritizing self-interest over the nation’s interest. We can define corruption in various forms, and different writers have explained different definitions of corruption. So, overall it is related to fraud, dishonesty, and deception by a person, whether he is a Street Child or a President holding a public office. Corruption is never considered a good act by any sensible person unless he is not a victim. Like everything, there exist types of corruption. Let’s discuss the kinds of corruption.

Types Of Corruption

• Local Corruption

A boy went to a bank to submit a fee around the bank’s closing time. So, no more customers will be dealt with by the bank staff for that day. The boy put a currency note of 5$ in the accountant’s fist. The accountant cleared all his fee submission formalities. This is local corruption. Mainly used by people to make their work done in less time. So, we may consider negligence, laziness, and carelessness the main reason behind local corruption. We are not used too off performing our duties on time, paying bills on time, or standing in a queue for our turn. So, all these things lead to shortcuts that may include some corruption called local corruption.

• Unavailable Corruption

Consider how a child thinks about his father when counting some currency notes from his wallet. Money is a fascination, and this counting will trigger something in the child about gaining that money. This urge for money will force the child to get money. We always look for the easiest possible and mostly the shortest ways to accomplish our desires, which is part of human nature. So, the child being a human, will think to get this money by hook or crook. He will list some options, like stealing his father’s or mother’s wallet. The second choice will be to keep money from the household grocery if he is asked to do so. Like bringing a milk pack from the market and claiming that it costs 5 dollars, but the original price is 3 dollars.

So, what leads the child to adopt such dangerous ways of gaining money?

Now, come back to one of the heading’s parts, Unavailable. The children are always curious about getting things not in their access. This feeling of unavailability leads to the basis of Unavailable Corruption.

• Powerful Corruption

Usually, it includes those in power in any form, whether he is the head of the state or department head. When he sees everything in his control, either the financial sector or the administration, he usually becomes blind. This blindness takes him to a stage where he gives up morality and focuses on getting things in his favour by hook or crook.

Morality is generally considered as a sense or ability of a person to distinguish between right and wrong. According to Lord Acton, A person’s sense of morality lessens as their power increases.

Another thing that is fruitful for the corrupts or powerful corrupts is no accountability satisfaction. They have no fear that someone can someday ask them questions regarding their deeds. How do they get this feeling of no fear? Let’s discuss it further.

Crime Partners

Being the head of a state, one uses a few things not to allow anyone to interfere or act against him. He makes partners or shareholders in corruption. If a President is in power and the questioning body is Judiciary. The President will offer Judiciary some partnership in his crime. This networking allows the corrupt to keep doing fraudulent activities because the questioning body is also involved. So nobody will ask him why he is doing such things.

Development Of Patronage System

When a person is in power, he makes use of two things which are as follows:

• Nepotism
• Cronyism

Nepotism

When an influential person appoints his relatives to important authority posts, this is called Nepotism. Nepotism examples are ubiquitous in developing countries. Father is the President, the son is the Prime Minister, the brother is the Chief Minister, and son in law is the Chief of the Army Staff. So, this type of appointment is prevalent in developing countries and is a perfect example of Nepotism.

Cronyism

Awarding friends financial benefits or appointing them to various organizations, regardless of their qualifications, is termed Cronyism. The most common example of Cronyism is that a person with zero knowledge about Information Technology is appointed Minister of Information Technology.

Both of the above (Nepotism and Cronyism) are awarding ways those in power adopt to their partners in wrongdoings or fraudulent acts. So, they may keep their voices low and keep assisting them in corruption.

Such a system, where Nepotism and Cronyism prevail, is a Patronage System.

Reasons of Corruption

There may be many reasons for corruption, but some of them include:

• Unequal power distribution is a prevailing cause of corruption. It allows a few members or families from a country or a state to enjoy power and authority to manipulate things. So, the administration may not reach the lower level of society.
• An inappropriate Local Bodies System is also one of the reasons why few families in a country are getting richer. In contrast, the remaining country class has to cope with the necessities of everyday life.
• The arrival of information to the ordinary person is not possible. It means that the public is unaware of whatever happens in a country. A calm and sound report is shown on public forums, so the public mainly remains unaware of the acts of government officials or those in power.
• Corruption’s reasons also include selfishness and prioritization of self-interest over the nation’s interest. We may call this No Love For Motherland. The powerful authorities have no concerns about what happens to the country. Their houses should remain enlightened.
• There is also a fantastic reason for corruption: one in power has never seen such availability of resources, power, and a luxury lifestyle. So, the one in power thinks he should collect everything from all the available sources.
• The fear of losing power also leads a ruler to think about corruption. When everything seems to be in his control, he will fear losing such things. This fear will result in nonsense acts like money laundering and create a sense of greed.
• The reasons for lower level corruption, or daily corruption in our society, are just the unavailability of things. Once things become in access to everyone, nobody will go towards bribery, theft, or any other wrongdoings.

How to Reduce Corruption

The reduction of corruption is linked to many things. Let’s discuss a few of them.

• Judicial Supremacy should be present in a country so that equal punishment for all the culprits, regardless of their backgrounds, authority, posts, and social status.
• The public should be aware of the financial affairs of their state, and every agreement, money in or out, should be public.
• The merit system should prevail to reduce the chances of Nepotism and Cronyism.
• The funds received in the name of a small village should be delivered to that village, and this is only possible if we have local bodies set up.
• A check and balance should be maintained to ensure transparency.
• The one who is in power must declare all his assets. There should be a proper observation that the one in power suddenly increases his assets after coming into power. The reasons and sources for the sudden increase should be identified. All the necessary actions should be taken against the culprit if found guilty.
• Punishment is not only the key to the transparency of the use of national funds. Recovery must be done, with extra fines to set examples for others to avoid such acts.
• Parents and teachers should work together to teach children that corruption is not a symbol of pride or dignity.
• Parents should set up pocket money for children. This act will reduce the chances of miss calculations by the children during household grocery.

So, overall corruption starts from the grass root level, and everyone tries to benefit whenever they have a chance to manipulate things. We must consider corruption a significant hurdle in our progress and adopt a mindset to help us reduce or remove corruption from our society.