Curbing Corruption: Toward a Model for Building National Integrity

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Rick Stapenhurst, Sahr John Kpundeh
World Bank Publications, Jan 1, 1999 - Political Science - 254 pages
Printed on Demand. Contact books@worldbank.org, if currently unavailable. After years of being treated as a taboo subject, the issue of corruption has begun to attract serious attention from the aid donor community. Corruption is, in its simplest terms, the abuse of power most often for personal gain or for the benefit of a group to which one owes allegiance. This book achieves a balance between a theoretical and a practical discussion of corruption and its causes and remedies. It explores the interaction between corruption and economic performance. While the economic costs of corruption are difficult to measure, some studies suggest that its costs would include: · An additional 3-10 percent increase for the price of a given transaction to speed up the delivery of a government service. · Inflated prices for goods by as much as 15-20 percent. · Diverted tax revenues that can cost the government as much as 50 percent of its tax revenues. This volume focuses on the following: · Lessons learned with two examples of good practice (Hong Kong and Singapore). · The economic and institutional approaches to anti-corruption efforts, with particular attention to the role of the public sector and civil society, including the media. · Case studies on Uganda, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone. Lessons learned indicate that an effective anticorruption strategy would be multifaceted, combining economic reforms, and strengthening national integrity institutions. And political commitment would be key to sustaining this effort.
 

Contents

III
13
IV
35
VI
51
VII
59
VIII
67
XI
89
XII
97
XIII
105
XVIII
127
XIX
151
XX
179
XXI
207
XXII
209
XXIII
235
XXIV
243
XXV
249

XV
117

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Page 161 - The nature of our economic problems in Tanzania demands that many officers of the Government, the Party, and the law itself, should be entrusted with great powers over other individuals. At the same time our recent history, and the educational backwardness of the majority of our people, means that automatic checks on abuse of power are almost non-existent. To the people in the villages and scattered homesteads of our wide country, it is the policeman, the magistrate, the TANU official or the Government...
Page 161 - ... country, it is the policeman, the magistrate, the TANU official or the Government officer, who represents government in their everyday life. And in the District and Regional Headquarters it is the Commissioner who wields direct and effective power in a manner which affects the life of our fellow citizens. This is inevitable and necessary. Only by entrusting real responsibility to such people can our nation be transformed. But we have to recognise that these powers can be - and have been abused....
Page 165 - Benefits f. personnel shall not solicit or accept transfers of economic benefit, other than incidental gifts, customary hospitality, or other benefits of nominal value, unless the transfer is pursuant to an enforceable contract or property right of the member; Preferential Treatment g.
Page 185 - Government departments and public bodies in order to facilitate the discovery of corrupt practices and to secure the revision of methods of work or procedures which, in the opinion of the Commissioner...
Page 39 - Arguments [The King] shall protect trade routes from harassment by courtiers, state officials, thieves, and frontier guards . . . [and] frontier officers shall make good what is lost. . . . Just as it is impossible not to taste honey or poison that one may find at the tip of one's tongue, so it is impossible for one dealing with government funds not to taste, at least a little bit, of the King's tvealth.
Page 39 - Indian philosopher-statesman, wrote more than two thousand years ago that "just as it is impossible not to taste honey or poison that one may find at the tip of one's tongue, so it is impossible for one dealing with government funds not to taste, at least a little bit, of the king's wealth.
Page 62 - In the exercise of his functions the Governor-General shall act in accordance with the advice of the Cabinet or a Minister acting under the general authority of the Cabinet...
Page 164 - ... in a manner that will bear the closest public scrutiny, an obligation that is not fully discharged by simply acting within the law.
Page 138 - Upon the conclusion of the preliminary investigation, if the Justice of the Peace is of the opinion that there is reasonable cause to believe that an offense has been committed and that the accused is guilty thereof, he shall so declare and shall adjudge that the accused be remanded to jail for safe keeping to await the action of the Judge or Court of First Instance, unless he give bail for his appearance if the case be bailable, as provided in General Order No.
Page 57 - On 1 July, Hong Kong became a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China in an arrangement that will last for 50 years.

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