How Nations Deal With Corruption

During the olden days such as the medieval age, if the word corruption came to light, it probably meant misuse of power, betraying your king, misuse of authority for food rationing and many more. Most of these acts would have to be paid by immediately, a stroll by the gallows as some would say or even beheadings here and there -- publicly is what I meant, of course.

But now, corruption is not a simple matter, as humans evolved and developed new methods of corruption, it is getting much more difficult to prevent such actions from happening. Fortunately, as much as corruption is stepping up its game, so is the way to prevent it. Take Central Europe for instance, some countries there are seen as one of the most transparent countries in the world.

Meaning that corruption is almost none existent there, of course we can’t stop corruption from happening but how are we preventing it and fighting it in this ever so complicated age? Well, today might be your lucky day since coincidentally, I am writing about three countries that are fighting corruption. Let’s begin shall we.

Czech Republic

Home of the ‘Bata’ brand, a famous shoe company that most Malaysians thought were locally grown in Malaysia, Czech Republic is first on the list. Czech Republic has been fighting a lot of bribery, money laundering amongst public officials and a little bit of patronage and nepotism. Based on a 2016 report by Thomas Colson, a reporter from Business Insider showed that the Czech’s came in 6th place in the listing of most corrupted countries in the world, beating countries such as Spain, South Korea etc. Two Prime Ministers had to step down due to corruption. One of the more notable acts was the misuse of EU fundings. So how did Czech Republic cope with the rapid increase of corruption in the country? One of the most significnt efforts was the startup of a campaign known notoriously as the Reconstruction of the State which comprises of various NGO’s, lawyers and corporate workers working together to fight the corruption that has been going on inside the country.

They started this campaign by pushing 9 bills that proved to be a solution towards the once known shady government. The 9 bills that were mentioned are transparent financing of political parties, declarations of assets on taking up an office, contracts on the internet, abolition of anonymous shares, appointments to state companies boards, independent public administration, no political interference in investigation, transperency in legislative process as well as the extension of the powers of Supreme Audit Office.

Surprisingly out of the nine, five of it has been passed and being implemented inside the Parliament. The campaign did this by taking advantage of the previous government fallout in June 2015 due to corruption scandal and forcing every parliament member to sign a detailed contract adhering towards the bills mentioned before.

Mexico

Another noteworthy country would be Mexico which stereotypically would be known as a country where corruption is well known for, however that statement is not wrong at all. According to The New York Times, the government of Mexico spends hundreds of millions of dollars on pushing their own agendas and propagandas through the media. President Enrique Pena Nieto has spent a big sum of money on advertisements about what has been known as ‘presidential branding’ which is capable of controlling investigative reports and is proved to be a threat to the newsroom that challenges the government. Mexico is also known to have a misguided administrative department such as the taxation and land department. Land permits are often accompanied with bribery and the country has the weakest tax revenues in the 34 nation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Some of the efforts taken by the government started with the passing of a bill called General Administrative Responsibilities Law (GLAR) on July 19th, 2017 which calls for the creation of a new Anti-Corruption system and the appointment of an Anti-Corruption prosecutor to further assist in the apprehension of various corruption act inside the country.

The new law applies to all public officials whom beforehand had been generally unaffected by the law apprehending corruption such as bribery and embezzlement of public funds. GLAR categorise such actions as ‘non-serious’ and ‘serious’ administrative offenses although the law has yet to show any significant results in the past months since its establishment.

Germany

Taking a little bit of twist on the last country would be Germany which is the most transparent country amongst the other two country I’ve mentioned previously. According to the Germany Corruption Report published by Business Anti-Corruption Portal, corruption is the least worry for public sectors as well as businesses in Germany caused by the firm and strong institution and anti-corruption framework. Their law which handles corruption is an art of the German Criminal Code which apllies to individuals and not companies making it illegal for bribery to take place. This means that companies can be held responsible for any corruption acts done by the representatives of their companies.

Another noteworthy German efforts to stop corruption is through the Law on Fighting Corruption better known as “zur Bekämpfung der Korruption” by expanding the scope of prospects and cases covered by the act, now including public officials both domestic and foreign bases, members of parliament, delegates and EU officials. It also enhances authority of German law enforcers to prosecute foreign bribery.

All three nation has their own way of fighting corruption which is strongly dependent on the type of corruption monopolising the country’s image of justice. How corruption is brought up is certainly never ending but how the world is fighting it is also improving day by day. Which in return perhaps we could see a world where corruption would be the least of our worries.