Muhammad Ali, a daily wage laborer in his mid sixties in a shabby appearance, sits bare-foot on the ground in the morning hours in a village in Pakistan, in a town bordering India. He spent 30 strenuous years of his life laboring in several factories in Karachi, lured by false promises of high wages and welfare benefits.
“Aspiring to change my living conditions, my employers have betrayed me as frequently as fifty times in the form of commercial bribery through various private factory contractors and their agents hiring labors,” he said.
The developing countries have been ruled either by the landlords, industrialists, military or a twisted combination of all three. Together, this ruling elite, supported by a meek bureaucracy and an obliging judiciary, controls and profits from many resources the developing world offers. The sidelined masses, uneducated and deprived, but resilient by nature, have suffered quietly, generation after generation. With little hope at their command, they find a compromised recluse in their mundane surroundings. Their condition has not changed and probably will never change. They are even badly trapped amid groups of non-state perpetrators of commercial bribery against which there has been no proper legislation so far.
The United Nations Convention against Trans-National Organized Crime, which entered into force in September 2003, requires that state parties consider establishing non-governmental corruption as a criminal offense. The United Nations Convention against Corruption, which entered into force on December 14, 2005, encourages member states to criminalize both public and private commercial bribery. According to UNODC, corruption, bribery, theft and tax evasion cost some US $1.26 trillion for developing countries per year.
The World Bank notes that the poor suffer the most from the petty corruption of the provision of public services. Empirical analysis has shown that the poor pay a higher share of their income on bribes than the rich. An IMF study shows that an increase of just 0.78 per cent in corruption reduces the income growth of the poorest 20 per cent of people in a country by 7.8 per cent a year. The Final Communiqué from the 2006 G8 St. Petersburg Summit is clear: the net effect of corruption is felt most directly, and disproportionately, by the poor.
An estimated $100 billion of World Bank loans have been lost to corruption since the Bank’s foundation in December 1945; when other multilateral development banks are included, the figure rises to $200 billion. Such ‘leakage’ leads to aid ‘disappearing’ before it reaches the poor.
A common query and complaint on behalf of many foreign clients wishing to invest in the third world is that there are no specific Federal and provincial laws concerning commercial bribery, but the legislative provisions of dealing with general issues such as criminal breach of trust. Cheating, mischief, making false documents, extortion and theft can be invoked to cover cases of commercial bribery. In the South Asian region, some common sections prescribe seven years of imprisonment for common fraud and deceitfulness. In view of the fact that none of these provisions specifically cover commercial bribes, the applicability of these provisions could be different depending on the circumstances involved.
The root cause of all such problems is ‘feudocracy’, a defective system of governance dominated by feudal landlords that fosters corruption as a culture and commercial bribery as a practice. This has resulted in the negligence of basic laws defining the moral character of a country’s constitution, which stipulates that only persons who are of good character, sagacious and honest can qualify for political and legislative processes.
A paralyzed justice system is ideal for the promotion of corruption and commercial bribery as it ensures that they will continue to get away scot-free. That is why military courts had to be established in various military coup governments for speedy justice, which has questioned the democracy and good governance also showing essence an official admission of the failure of the justice system.
Last year, The International Anti-Corruption Day (December 9) campaign highlighted that acting against corruption is imperative to achieving the recently adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). These aim to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all, amongst others.
In his message on that Day, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon noted that attitudes towards corruption have changed dramatically. “Where once bribery, corruption and illicit financial flows were often considered part of the cost of doing business, today, corruption is widely – and rightly – understood as criminal and corrosive”, he said.
The Executive Director of UNODC, Yury Fedotov, underlined that the Day is an opportunity to acknowledge the work undertaken against corruption and bribery, but also to chart future efforts to rid the world of these crimes.
“This year was another milestone in these activities,” he said, noting that the sixth session of the Conference of the States Parties to the anti-corruption Convention had come together in St. Petersburg, Russia, to hold a dialogue on global anti-corruption activities.
“There were a number of successes, including in the areas of asset recovery, prevention of corruption and bribery, the development of public/private partnerships and the launch of the second cycle of the review mechanism under [the Convention],” he stated.
Turning to sustainable development, Mr. Fedotov said that when corruption and bribery succeed, the goal of fairness and equality fail. Indeed, entire communities can be left without infrastructure, hospitals or schools. But, corruption also undermines vital tendering processes, damages industries and debases competition.
SDG Goal 16 seeks to substantially reduce corruption and bribery, as well as promote access to justice and effective, accountable and transparent institutions. Corruption, bribery, theft and tax evasion cost some US $1.26 trillion for developing countries per year; this amount of money could be used to lift those who are living on less than $1.25 a day to above $1.25 for at least six years. The rule of law and development have a significant interrelation and are mutually reinforcing, making it essential for sustainable development at the national and international levels.
Historically and statistically speaking, the most active participants in corruption include more than four colossal sectors of the South Asian and African regions: police and law enforcement, judiciary and legal professions, the power sector, tax and customs, health and education and land administration. Political patronage, conflicting interests, peddling of influence and other forms of demoralizing acts are currently promoting commercial bribery in poor countries, which need a fair legislation to overcome these.
Corruption and bribery both attack the foundation of democratic institutions by distorting electoral processes and perverting the rules of law. Many people, especially the poor, women and minorities face the necessity of paying bribes to gain access to essential services. Commercial bribery undermines democratic institutions, slows economic development and contributes to governmental instability. If the proper legislation against commercial bribery is not introduced and implemented, millions of workers and people like Muhammad Ali in Pakistan and other parts of the world will continue to be looted and victimized by fraudulent hands. Such practices are the key obstacles to progress and prosperity, hurting poor people disproportionately and a strong hurdle in attaining commercial transparency.
