Youth for Good Governance

d i s t a n c e l e a r n i n g p r o g r a m

Module IV

Causes of
Corruption
Module IV

Causes of
Corruption

Section One: Module Overview

This module introduces you to the causes of corrup-
tion, acknowledging the personal motiv es of those
who giv e or take bribes, but stressing that the root
causes of corruption are bad systems of governance.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the module, you will be able to:
• identify a range of motivations that people have
for engaging in corruption
• discuss how dysfunctional systems cause corruption

Participant Role
You are encouraged to read all the materials in this
handbook and attempt to complete all the exercises
before the videoconference session. If you have any
questions or need guidance with the exercises, contact
your facilitator through the e-mail list that has been
developed for the course.

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 Section Two: Personal Motivations in Corruption
People offer bribes because they want an unfair
advantage over others—to pay lower taxes, to get an Look at the cartoon below and answer the following
appointment or promotion, to win a contract, or to questions.
get something done quickly. They also may offer
bribes to avoid a fine or penalty.
People seek bribes for several reasons that are
special for them. For example:
• Politicians seek money to use for patronage.
They may argue that to stop such payments
could bring political instability and unrest.
• Politicians and officials who fear loss of office
seek corrupt benefits as “insurance”, especially
if they can expect no pension.
• Officials need extra money to maintain their
standards of living if salaries have not been
raised to match inflation, to meet commit-
ments for housing, car, school fees, etc. This cartoon shows a tourist casually handing a bribe
• Employees feel resentment over bad manage- to an African official while each privately criticizes the
ment or pay levels they think unfair. This may corruption of the other.
make them feel justified in making false • Would this be a typical scene in your country?
expense claims or taking bribes. • How could both the official and the tourist
• Employees who refuse to participate in a cor- engage in corruption but be critical of it at the
ruption “racket” may be suspected and under same time?
threat from their colleagues or superiors.
Source: Cheri Samba, “Frontier Airport: Country in the Process of Development,”
• Some seek status, not only for having more 1990.

riches than their colleagues but because cor-

rupt officials may be admired by friends and
family for their skills in outwitting authority.

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 Section Three: Bad Systems What causes corruption is, first, a clear opportuni-
We have just considered what causes individuals to pay ty, such as the envelope of cash sitting in the parking
or take bribes. Some of these answers reflect morali- lot. This kind of opportunity in the government could
ty, about good and bad people. But more often, the be a government-run mining company with no com-
underlying reason that people get involved in corrup- petitors, or a long list of licenses and fees required
tion is that systems don’t work well and create bad for shipping goods into or out of the country.
incentiv es. Second, what causes corruption is little chance of
getting caught. This lack of accountability comes pri-
marily from a) a lack of transparency, for example,
when public officials do not inform about or explain
To understand what this means, let us do the following what they are doing, including a declaration of their
exercise in class. Consider the following. You are wealth, houses, and cars and b) weak enforcement,
approaching your car in an empty and unattended park- when law agencies do not impose sanctions on power
ing garage late at night. You see an envelope on the holders who have violated their public duties. This is
ground and you pick it up. It contains 20 bills of US the case, for example, when judges are in the pay of
$100 each. If there’s no possibility that anyone would the ruling party or there are too few police officers
know—no cameras, no one around—what would you do to enforce the law.
with the cash, keep it or turn it in to the authorities? Third, what causes corruption is bad incentiv es,
Your facilitator will ask for a show of hands. Now con- such as a clerk not earning enough to liv e on or not
sider the same scenario, but this time there is a 30% being sure that he will have a job tomorrow so that
chance that you will be observ ed. For example, there is he supplements his income with bribes. In extreme
a 30% chance that a camera will record your actions cases, people do not have an incentiv e to perform
and someone will review the tape. Your facilitator will their official duties, but actually pay for their jobs
again ask for a show of hands. with the understanding they will make money
Now review how this exercise played out with vari- through bribes. For example, look at the following
ous audiences: table showing public sector jobs that are “sold” in
three different countries.
Fourth, what causes corruption is attitudes or cir-
cumstances that make average people disregard the
law. People may try to get around laws of a govern-
ment they consider illegitimate (for example, not pay-
ing taxes to the apartheid government in South
Africa). Poverty or scarcity of goods (such as medi-
As you can see, more people would engage in cor-
cine) may also push people to liv e outside the law.
ruption under the wrong circumstances, that is, if no
So, corruption is not just about ethics. It’s also
one would find out and if they had few alternativ es.
about how the government is set up and managed.

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 That is why improving the way government works is
so important.
This is a game that will be played in class. The aim is to
win as many points as you can. Students will sit in
groups of four, and each student will hold two pieces of
paper, one marked with an “X” and the other with a
Which Public Sector Jobs Are “Sold”? “Y.” For each of the eight successiv e rounds, play either
the “X” or “Y” at the same time the other members of
your group play. Each round’s payoff depends on the
pattern of choices made in your team. Place your score
for each round on the score sheet.
During this exercise, you cannot talk to other play-
ers in your group, except before you play rounds 5 and
8, when you may speak with the other players before
deciding whether to play an “X” or a “Y.”

PAYOFF SCHEDULE
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
4 X’s: Lose 1 each 3 X’s: Win 1 each
Source: Diagnostics 1998. 1 Y: Lose 3 2 X’s: Win 2 each
2 Y’s: Lose 2 each 1 X: Win 3
3 Y’s: Lose 1 each 4 Y’s: Win 1 each

The scorecard for this exercise is on the following page.

Which of the following conditions are likely to cause cor- After playing the game, discuss the following in class:
ruption? Explain your answers. • What did you see as your goal?
• A large backlog of court cases • What were the outcomes?
• Lack of information about application procedures • What was the maximum possible outcome for the
for business permits whole group? What was the minimal possible out-
• Regular purchase of medical supplies for health come?
care facilities • Were other ways of communication possible aside
• Job promotion in the tax collection agency not from talking?
based on performance • What does this have to do with corruption?

Source: http://www.aces.uiuc.edu/~ALE/2000/pennington.htm, Bridging the Gap

between Theory and Application: Activities that Tie Leadership Education to the
Real World.

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 Notes

SCORECARD

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 Notes

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