Political Corruption 003 Edit 2

Political Corruption
M. Ruttan
Mathieu Aubin
03/05/2015
Mathieu Aubin
Preface
Political corruption is a dreadful issue that affects billions of people worldwide each year.
Political corruption is defined as the abuse of political power by the government leaders to
extract and accumulate for private enrichment, and to use politically corrupt means to maintain
their hold on power (Political Corruption Law & Legal Definition, 2015). Political corruption
means in laymens terms, is when superior political leaders use their power, resources and
privileges to improve their self-whether it is threw sending money into off shore accounts or
going on paid for vacations. There are many different methods of political corruption that society
faces everyday such as bribery, patronage, nepotism, electoral fraud, embezzlement, involvement
in organized crimes and so many more. Political corruption is a global issue, however, the main
geographic areas that suffer from this injustice are underdeveloped countries in Africa, South
American and Asia. This substantial issue dramatically affects communities, economies, people
and their nation. The main underdeveloped countries that will be presented are the Philippines,
Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. These countries in each have at least one a major corruption
problem that is present, which has radically influenced the way of living. Along with the
countries stated there will be points on how corruption is a global issue resulting in a lack of
safety, organisation trying to help, experts on political corruption, solutions to the issue and a
background of political corruption over the years. The basis of this report will be to present the
fact that political is without a doubt a major political problem.
In every government there are politically corrupt politicians that use their power over
people to benefit themselves. Political corruption is a huge problem because it affects billions of
people everywhere in so many different ways. This global issue has major effects in a nation on
many levels. The enormous social, humanitarian affects that dramatically influences the peoples
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wellbeing is a one, the other being the radical economic downside that political corruption
presents. The humanitarian effects presented form political corruption in a country brings
political prejudice, problems of liability and transparency to the public, low level of democratic
principles. Political corruption causes people to not want a comfortable working environment,
even if it would mean greater good, it usually makes for a sad domestic society. The concept of
bribes becomes natural and results in a huge diversity between the wealthy and deprived later
there is a lack of basic necessities such as water, food and medication. Afterwards There are the
vast economic effects; the diminution of national wealth, the increased cost of import and
exportation, the lack of funding to major institution like hospitals and schools, usually leading to
inflation of the nation and the uprising of major vast poverty (What are the effects of corruption?,
2015). As can be seen, the social, humanitarian and economic affects make political corruption a
huge problem on a global scale. People should not be okay with accepting the fact that their
government is corrupt because they do not know any better.
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Table of Contents
Political Corruption.........................................................................................................................1
Preface.............................................................................................................................................2
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................4
Background......................................................................................................................................5
Expert...............................................................................................................................................9
Role of Control..............................................................................................................................11
Logic of Evil..................................................................................................................................14
Religion..........................................................................................................................................18
Case Studies...................................................................................................................................20
Philippines (Kickbacks).............................................................................................................20
Zimbabwe (Nepotism)...............................................................................................................25
Afghanistan (Electoral Fraud)....................................................................................................29
International Organizations............................................................................................................34
Canadian Connection.....................................................................................................................39
Solutions........................................................................................................................................43
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Background
Political corruption is an issue that has a long background due to the humans need of
being in control people have been corrupt since the minute someone made others in charge.
People as a whole will, and always have been, corrupt, it is human nature. Even the ancient
Roman leaders would accept a bribe in the late 300s B.C, to let their enemy retain their weapons
and give them mercy. That is a huge form of political corruption present in the worlds everyday
society.
Over many years political corruption has worsened due to the major political leaders
being corrupt by stealing mass amounts of money from their governments and people. In
contemporary days, political leaders are found stealing billions and using the money for their
benefit. For the most part history has showed us that political corruption has occurred in
developing countries where a government has yet to be established. Some examples are:
In the late 1900s, the second prime-minister of Indonesia, Mohamed Suharto, stole what
was supposedly between $15-35 billion from the countrys economy, for which he was awarded
with the most corrupt world leader of the past 20 years (Transparency International, 2012) at
the time. Suharto was able to steal an abundant because of his major political status; the funds
that were donated to help schools, roads etcetera were sent directly to him, which in turn he
took from. (Koerner, 2015)
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In Haiti, 1971-86, J.C. Duvalier was the president after his father passed away, who had
set up many separate accounts on the side for himself. However, Duvalier spent his time as
president by stealing roughly $300-800 million from one of the poorest countries in the world,
Haiti. During his time as the boss, he was also accused of killing and torturing thousands of
people to take what he could. This was because of the extreme political and police corruption
that was occurring in Haiti. (Haiti?, 2015)
Political corruption is everywhere in the D.R. Congo, an underdeveloped country because
the Europeans left a time of war occurred. This is when Mobutu Sese Seko was voted to
become the first president of the D.R Congo. During his reign, he renamed the country to Zaire,
also at that time he gave rise to the term kleptocracy (a government or state in which those in
power exploit national resources and steal; rule by a thief or thieves). In his reign he decided to
store as much of the countries economy into off shore banks in Europe; an estimated 5 billion
was taken. To other countries Zaire was an image of a country where organization stayed a little
more than the means of transporting money to the political leaders. When a Militia decided to try
and overthrow Mobotu, he printed more currency, and bribed the troops (DR Congo's troubled
history, 2015). He was the true role model for politically corrupt leaders everywhere.
In Nicaragua, the former President, Arnoldo Alemn, served in his seat for five years
(1997-2002), he was in charge of many politically corrupt actions. Among those are money
laundering, Embezzling and corruption. Alemn used the countries economy to pay for
amazingly expensive vacations, bribing politicians and giving himself an immense amount of
money; in total an estimated $100 million. This was all happening in a country that has an
average income of $430.00 a year, these politically corrupt activities dramatically hurt
Nicaraguas economy and people living there. (Jordan, 2015)
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Many underdeveloped countries are the main source of political corruption for the key
motive being that they do not have a solid government process that is not corrupt as is. This in
hand, makes it much easier to target them since the outside world, if they keep their corruption
small, will leave them alone. There are so many people who would like to take advantage of
small underdeveloped countries, because they are usually uneducated and uninformed. It is easy
for a well-spoken leader to come in pretend to care and then in turn take the entire countrys
wealth.
That being said, not only underdeveloped or developing counties suffer from political
corruption, there have been many cases in very well developed countries as well where the same
situation occur. Although most political corruption situations are stopped eventually in more
developed countries, it still occurs frequently.
One more recent would situation would be, the 2011 the Robocall scandal, where during
the federal election an automated voice called many people centered on the Guelph riding. This
voice told them that the voting stations have been moved to different areas since the over
expected number of people that were supposed to vote. This in term lead to many people not
being able to vote. (MacCharles, 2015)
As demonstrated over many years, political corruption has been around and has been
presented in many different forms. Political corruption will never be stopped completely in
developed or underdeveloped countries, because, as long as some people have power, there will
always be corruption. There is always going to be a new man who thinks he will be able to beat
the system and stay in power or make a lot of money.
All of this happened in 2014, political corruption has evolved from a problem to a global
issue affecting billions of people worldwide; like lack of funding for essential needs, for the
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people who are being robbed blind. Last year, the least corrupt countries were Denmark, New
Zealand and Finland, all of which scored above 90 out of 100, 100 being the least corrupt and 0
being the most. The average score, of the 176 countries that were researched, was 43.
(Corruption Perceptions Index 2014, 2015).
Due to the large number of politically corrupt countries, there are many people trying to
stop the global issue, because they are aware of the consequences that these people are facing. As
a result, there are many Anti-corruption legislation and laws these days that are trying to prevent
political corruption from accruing. Many people worldwide are trying to stop the issue because
it is a problem in some peoples everyday lives and they understand that it needs to end. Even
though people are attempting their best to punish people who are politically corrupt, they have
caused many people a great deal of harm, which is difficult to prevent.
Political corruption is a major global issue that has been around for a very long time.
Even though currently there is nothing substantial that is preventing or stopping it in the major
undeveloped countries, there is a slower pace of it because of all the punishments and awareness
that are being linked to it. History so far has yet to prove a valid solution for political corruption,
however people are working on it every day.
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Expert
Brian Pinkowski is one of the leading experts in political corruption, in todays everyday
society. He offers Legal and Consulting Services for International Businesses and Governments
as his day to day job, however his position in national and local level governments focuses on
governance, decentralization, organizational development, strategic planning and budget
execution, capacity building, drafting regulations, change management, and subject matter
expertise including land use, environment, and offer his expertise to policy. His Career all of
these experiences have made him one of the most experienced and capable people to obtain the
title Anti-corruption Expert (Bibliography, 2015).
In the past, he has spoken to numerous crowds all over the world about anti-corruption;
one being the 7th Pan Africa Conference for Modernization of the Public Sector in Morocco,
where he represented the U. S. A.. He has also participated in many broadcasts, conferences and
panel discussions concerning anticorruption. Some of his work has been recognized by the Vice
President of the United States. (Bibliography, 2015
The way that the experts views political corruption as what we are doing so far as
punishing the corrupt is not enough. He says This presence frightens some people into proper
behavior. But mostly it does not (Pinkowski, 2015). This means that even though some smaller
political leaders might listen because it frights them, the officials higher up will not. He also
states that as children I find that it did not make them better behaved. It simply made them
cleverer at avoiding detection. (Pinkowski, 2015). He compares corrupt politicians to children
by saying punishment did not stop the politicians but only made politically corrupt politicians
better at hiding the corruption so they would not get caught. (Bibliography, 2015)
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Pinkowski believes that a big thing we should focus on is motivating different behavior
BEFORE crimes takes place, so that we will not have to punish people since corruption would
stop entirely. Pinkowskis plans to stop corruption by creating awareness; he believes that if
people know about the laws and rules that political leaders should following, the people will
ensure the laws are enforced.
The many areas and regions he has been has been dedicated to informing the areas about
their rights and freedoms. He is contributing to the solution; in hopes that others will to. By
spreading the word (Pinkowski, 2015)
The task he accomplished in South Sudan where he was resident for two years working
towards referendum to establish their independence as well as developing an open, civil society
and government was a huge success. He discussed with over 2000 opinion leaders to figure out
how he was able to make South Sudan less corrupt. With this he was able to create his model for
other countries, although most countries would reject his statement. He says in his book When
officials make important public policy decisions without transparency or explanation, the result
can be corruption (Pinkowski, 2015). Meaning although they do not accept transparency, the
leaders are already corrupt, therefore choose not to accept the solution.
Brian Pinkowski is an expert on political and general corruption, which is presented
among his amazing strategies to defeat corruption, his incredible involvement in under
developing countries and his nonstop attack against corruption. He has worked on prodemocracy and anti-corruption in many different countries, including Iraq, Kenya, Southern
Sudan, Timor Leste and elsewhere. Not only that, he is a board member of the Africa Foundation
for Human Rights & Tolerance East Africa, based in Nairobi, Kenya. (Baron, 2015). With all this
it would be hard not to consider Brian Pinkowski and expert on political corruption.
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Role of Control
The role of control is a big part of this issue, a way to find out about this is to look at the
money and follow it, how and who the issue is benefiting and how does it happen. The issue of
political corruption is usually fairly transparent as to who is in control. The major political
leaders that are in charge of the area, nation, country etcetera, are the ones who have the power
and ability to access the money.
Firs, Political corruption is when people take advantages of the system to benefit usually
themselves political powers ie politians, presidents and political leaders this is usually in the
form of money but there are many different ways someone can be politically corrupt for
example: bribery, patronage, nepotism, electoral fraud, embezzlement, kickbacks and
involvement in organized. All of these have one thing in common; the people in charge of acts
involving political corruption are always a member of a government.
Second, political corruption should be, but is not a main focus in most developing
countries, because they have been living with it for their entire existence. The politically corrupt
leaders should not be the ones in charge of the entire political board. The country should have a
civilians side to the government as well and not just a president. However, in developing
countries it is too easy for one to assume dictatorship as has happened in the past with Arnoldo
Alemn. On solution would be to introduce other parties because it is much harder to corrupt all
of them compared to only one party. The reason for this is because one party is able to abuse the
system, they steal a lot of money for their own benefit even if it has a negative impact on the
countrys economy making increases amounts civilians in poverty and having to do illegal things
in order to survive.
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Third, the politicians that are corrupt but what exactly are they in charge of. The range
and what they are in control of varies in every situation. It could be the voting committee, or
could be in charge of the treasury, or others could be to anything, it country. Individuals with so
much control and with such easy access to anything, it would be hard to say who should be in
charge of things. The people of the specific nation, country whatever should be in charge of the
government. Even when people are still cleaning officials to represent them the probability of
corruption is low but still theres..
Fourth, currently 88 countries of 176 are politically corrupt. One of the most determental
parts is that most of the people in those countries feel powerless because have grown accustomed
to it since it has been around for so long. The developing countries do care, much more than the
people within developing countries. These developing countries include; Canada, United States
of America (U.S.A.) France and the United Nations, who donate money to the developing
countries but see no results. After a while most people figure out after the billions of dollars they
have given and without results that there is a large problem. These countries investigate because
they look at political corruption and see how it is wrong and how it is not fair that the economy is
so bad because of some political leaders who did not do their job.
Fifth, most people in developed countries live a privileged life since they have
established a solid government checks and balancing things to prevent corruption. Granted there
are still loop holes that some people exploit but for the most part it is corruption free. These
developed nations are very empathetic towards developing countries since they are being treated
unjustly and they do not know it. Since they have been growing up with it their entire lives they
see it as something normal and they do not know any different but developed countries do try to
help by enforcing rules when they know about it. The problems most people do not know when
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developing countries have corrupt governments since they do not have a solid government in the
first place.
In conclusion being affected everyday common citizen are not concerned about political
corruption. They should be since political corruption involves stealing money from the economy.
This is of large importance because the people should care that the five billion dollars that
Mobotu has taken did not go to what it was intended for. It was intended for financial aid to help
the country. If that money would not of been taken /stolen then Dominican Republic of Congo
could maybe be a with more desirable accommodations. Five billion dollars is enough to change
something in a developing country. If the people care then they would be able to stop it and not
let it continue on for so long. Everyone should care about political corruption because it is such a
pressing issue and it would benefit them in the long run.
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Logic of Evil
The logic of evil is a strong concept of why people would perform such unethical acts.
The way to find this is by looking at why politicians might become corrupt. The majority of the
time political corruption occurs because of money. Everyone likes money and the more you have
of it more important and powerful you are.
The way a politician for example when someone would want a permit so that they can
add to their building, or they need a place demolished to build a new building, whatever the case
may be a certain fee or attribute would help persuade that politician to help move along the plans
faster than normal. The politician would accept the bribe and the permit would go up without any
problem. (Jorgensen, 2015). This is a very simple case and the reason the politician would accept
is because he likes money and wealth equals power. The politicians logic behind this evil is that
as long as they are getting money from this situation they will be happy.
There are other cases in undeveloped countries where political leaders will influence the
voting process, also known as electoral fraud. This is where the politician in order to remain in
power will either increase his or hers favored candidate (himself) vote to stay in power or
decrease the rival candidate votes to insure victory (Ogunlesi, 2015). The reasoning behind
someone who would do this is that they want to stay in power. This happens frequently in
undeveloped countries. For example India, have had this issue for such a long time that it has
become so desensitized people do not vote because they know that there vote really will not
matter. Granted this is a subject that people condemn heavily but it is still a problem. The main
reason they like to stay in power is because they have vast resources at their fingertips which
they can control and abuse since they lead the nation.
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There are many reasons why a politician would go corrupt, but the number one reason
would be for money. Money is something that controls the world and the person with the most
money is said to be the person with the most power and with power comes corruption due to the
inability to manage their own power.
Another way of looking at the Logic of Evil is, why should politicians care? Why would
they have to let the country be treated equally and fair? If they are benefiting from it and nobody
is stopping them, why should they believe there is a problem. If the politician is living a
privileged life and has no worries then they should not care about the lesser because they
possibly put them in charge. But if they voted for him to be in charge and he abuses the system it
is sorely their fault. Just like Mobotu did in the Congo he took advantage of the role he was in
and did not worry about the countrys economic stand point; he just did what he had to do to stay
on top and stay wealthy.
The corrupt political leaders do not have to care about their people or their country. They
should because the people trusted him to do so. They need to care about the wellbeing of their
people if they are in a position of power. Sadly this is only the case about half the time according
to the Transparency International websites that says about the average corruption in the 176
countries we studied is forty three percent out of one hundred. (Transparency International,
2012), This is poor and corrupt scores. The logic of evil intertwines with the want and greed for
money and power that political leaders strive for.
The political aspects that involve political corruption are enormous. A major political
leader that would be corrupt could influence the entire system to make it easier for them to
perform wrong activities. If the issue involves politics then obviously they will a have a great
deal of influence on the problem. When Joseph Estrada stole approximately eighty million from
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tax payers money the only way he would have been able to prevent this is if he was not in the
political standpoint that he was (10 Politicians Who Stole Fortunes, 2015). Not any normal
person could just steal 80 million dollars from taxpayers money; you must be in the system in
able to access that money to take it in the first place. If Joseph Estrada was not a politician he
would never have been able to take that money.
Media views on political corruption also play major role. If the media decided not to
share the political corruption scandals then no one will know about it. The media must inform
people what has happened in the past to help educate underdeveloped countries that do not know
if what the leader of their nation is doing wrong. They must educate the people through media so
they will be able to stand up to the corrupt government officials so the issue of political
corruption will be put to an end.
The right of the people changes widely depending on where you live but people are not
being denied rights in the most part but they are not receiving the full benefit of their rights. If
the government officials are taking money from donations for example going to the schools and
the political leader steals from the donation as Mobotu did in his area (Mobutu Sese Seko, 2015),
the schools are not being funded properly and getting torn down which means there is not any
access to education A World at School says that in the Congo Two million children will never
go to school at all (Democratic Republic of the Congo, 2015). They miss out on the opportunity
for an education. The U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary
and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical
and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall
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be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. (The Univeersal Declaration of Human
Rights, 2015)
This means that the children being affected by political corruption are not able to receive an
education, denying them there rights.
Political corruption revolves around money, there are many different forms of it but for
the most part money is the main reason why political leaders are corrupt. This means that these
huge political scandals involving people like Mobotu, Mubarak, Suharto, Tabelsi and many
more. These individuals took billions of dollars from the countries and dramatically affect them
in a negative way in an economic stand point. When political corruption happens the people who
are taking large sums of money usually take it from tax payers pockets or donations made from
outside organizations trying to improve the countries wellbeing. When the money does not go
where it is supposed to go not only does it dramatically affect the people since the countries
money intensely reduced but it also makes for a very poor economy (Causes and Effects of
Poverty, 2015). The poor economy affects the people since there is no money for essential
organizations to sustain their wellbeing, the result of political corruption will usually end in an
underdeveloped country and there will be a great increase of poverty throughout the population.
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Religion
Religion in most cases have very little to do with the issue of political corruption. The
religions that are dominant; Christian, Protestant, Hinduism, Muslim, Buddhism etcetera all have
the golden rule One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself (Religious
Information, 2015) this would stop most corruption from happening. But just like every
organization when the access to power comes, so does corruption.
There have been cases of corruption when it comes to religion, since the day there has
been a pope. In the middle Ages the kings would augment the tax so that they could build a
bigger and better cathedral then the neighbouring kingdom. This all happened through the king
who would essentially steal from the poor for the benefit of religion, similar to a reverse Robin
Hood.
The Christian church was a religion that was known for corruption. They would not only
take money from the people, but they would also take their lives, claiming they were unholy or
they practiced witchcraft. They would burn the stake because the bishops or pope would say so.
Religion also had some corrupt ways to make money that would fall under fraud. They
would write out the Bible and sell them to the rich, only people that could afford them, and if
they bought them, all their sins where forgiven.
These are just a few example of corruption on the religious side, but it demonstrates even
in religion once power comes into play there will be corruption. Today it less severe since the
religious groups do not hold as much power as they did in the medieval period but the concepts
are still relevant.
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However there are a lot of cases in which religion or religious groups to try and stop the
issue of corruption. For example the Kenya Broadcasting Cooperation featured an AntiCorruption campaign which used the inter-religious council of Kenya, in an interactive anticorruption programme. Also, Kenya tried to implement anti-corruption systems in Muslim and
Christian groups because although they do not believe that it is the voice of god that is causing
corruption they believe if they can help rid of it they should. (IRCK, 2015)
Religious groups have been called important and should be implicated in the anticorruption battles since most developing countries are heavily religious and the churches,
mosque or whichever religious figures could really benefit the people by informing them.
Transparency International talks about the need for the various religious bodies to actively get
involved in the country's anti-corruption crusade (Statesman, 2015). This is very true in the
country of Ghana where forty one percent are Muslim, and the people believe that to solve
corruption religion must be implemented.
Religion can be used as such a big tool for better or worse is because as Ghana Modern
said people listen to their religious leaders and they play a major role in shaping the character
of their members who are the same people working as public and private officials in the MDAs,
politics, CSOs, academia etc. (Statesman, 2015). This is true many underdeveloped countries,
because most are strongly religious which would mean if the head of any religion started to
preach about anti-corruption then people would listen
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Case Studies
Philippines (Kickbacks)
The Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDA) is a flexible fund that is available in
the Philippines. Offered only to the members of the congress, for reason to only allow politicians
to fund small scale organization or community projects. These projects are typically not funded
by the national infrastructures. The P.D.A. was originally established as the Country wide
Development found (C.D.F) in 1990 and had a 2.3 billion initial budget. In the 2000s under the
rule of Joseph Estrada, it was changed to the P.D.A since the C.D.F was eventually linked to
major corruption, as well as the Marcos Regime which would steal money from the C.D.F. The
Priority development assistants fund has been a roller-coaster that has never comes down. Since
the initial budget it has gone up over the years dramatically, in 2012 the budget reached a new
peak attaining 24.9 billion which is 1.25% off the countries 2 trillion budget. Annually
members of government would receive funds from the P.D.A. Senators received 200 million
while each of the 294 districts receive 70 million. The president received the most for what
would seem obvious reason, an enormous 1 billion from the fund. (Relin, 2014)
The P.D.A was a great idea but the fact is that people enjoy taking advantage of things.
The accounts where meant for Politicians to use for the greater good of their community. Sadly
for the most part they were spent on pointless projects that benefited a group of citizens. In return
that groups support or campaign donations were given. For example, let's say a city has a large
number of potholes spread evenly throughout its communities. If the mayor took campaign
contributions from a group of wealthy residents in exchange for a promise to fix the potholes in
their neighborhood first, this would be pork-barrel politics. There were also many cases where
the politicians would use the funds to invest or help support ghost projects that were in reality
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non-government founds. These non-government founds really did nothing to benefit anyone but
would serve as recipients for the P.D.A. money. From there what has happened was these NGOs
would put the money into a foundations bank account which would eventually be withdrawn and
split up by the amount of member that invested in the scam, essentially kickbacks from this
found. An example of this was Janet Lim Napoles who was considered pork barrel scam
mastermind (Inquirer, 2014) she had many fake NGO that she invested using the P.D.A founds
on of which included her nanny. (Burgonio, 2015)
The phrase pork barrel was first used in the United States when in the 1800 slave owners
would give their slaves pork that was salted in huge barrels of salt. This in turn made the slaves
work harder and want to please the owner for some pork. (Relin, 2014)
The scam was first released in the Philippine Daily Inquirer on July 12, 2013, where
there where an elegit 28 members in total, that where participating in the P.D.A scam. An
estimated 5 billion was taken received threw N.G.O. kickbacks and those are just the ones who
were caught. (Carvajal, 2014)
These corrupt congressmen who would use the P.D.A. fund to get reflected which is
terrible. The Philippines is a very poor country which would mean if the government officials
where to give the people money then maybe they will continue to vote for said politicians. There
financial restrictions would overweight the vote, even if they did not believe in the politicians
morals. This means the people are being influenced to do something that they truly do not want,
but they received something in return, also known as bribery. The important significance behind
this is these congress members are buying their way into power, which is considered electoral
fraud. Politicans should be voted into power dues to their need to want to help the people, not
their greed taking over them for money.
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The other part of this is the extreme kickback these members are receiving. These billions
of that are meant for the bettering of the community and expansions which is not being used
for its purposes. The impact that this holds on the community is that the funds are not being used
for the purpose which they are meant to be. So the underdeveloped community are becoming
worse since they do not have the proper funding to change, for the reason that it is only going to
the congressmen.
The congressmen are also getting rich while their communities are becoming poor. Other
non-corrupt officials notice what they are doing and think that they could also benefit from this,
because who does not want to get rich. So they also decide to use N.G.O. s and in turn their
community also get impacted. It is like a non-stop flow until someone steps in to stop the
corruption.
The cultural influence that is involved in the manner is that the country has always been
poor so they let it happen right under their noses. So the poor community view it as a normal
thing, and most are uneducated so they are not aware of the situation. Even if they are aware they
do not know the people to contact, where to go, and the proper procedures they have to take to
get rid of their government.
The major cultural differences in the Philippines are the people uniting to try and get a
more open and less corrupt government. Not having to live with the congress and the terrible
community living due to the lack of funding for the area. The issue was solved pretty quickly as
soon as the issue was known.
What did happen though when the majority of the people were informed of what has
happened is, they were very upset and angry that there where major riots held and protest against
what the congressmen. Thousand came together and protested for justice against what they did
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and for that they were to be treated properly, not just blown off. In hopes to have a greater
economy in the Philippines, huge groups where formed to help prevent and stop the pork barrel
scam form ever happening again.
Because of this scam there was also a change of political authority with the propaganda
said they will try and setup measures against not only the pork barrel scam, also corruption in
general. This meant people were completely reconsidering who they though should be a major
political stronghold, since they really did not like the scam.
The outcome of this major political scam that took huge amounts of money away from
the people resulted in incredible actions. Not only did the people ask for change but some
enforced it some went to congress and faugh them. All of these protest and riots resulted in many
petition against the congressman, the government and the N.G.Os that were involved. After
which the Supreme Court of the Philippines declared the Priority Development Assistant found
to be unconstitutional, so it was removed November 19, 2013. Seven months later declaring the
Disbursement Acceleration Program in hoped to boost the countrys economy. The People
Imitative Against Pork Barrel (PIAP) was created and demanded for all and any budgets to be
submitted by government officials be itemized except for a few exceptions, also the presidential
social fund to be abolished witch the community described, as a form of pork barrel. The main
congressman accused and found guilty where treated properly most convicted and prosecuted.
Many anti movement corruption idea where put in place to stop it from relapsing. (Peoples
Initiative, 2014)
This all ended with the people receiving what they wanted. Except a year late the
government drafted a national budget that still contained money for the people (pork) in the form
of special purpose funds. This completely ignored and insulted the earlier ruling that it was
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unconstitutional, nonetheless was cancelled because people noticed too many resemblances to
the old P.D.A fund. Even with all these solution the congressman still adores the spoils of
discretionary Funds in other forms which really prove the power equals corruption ideology.
(Matus, 2014)
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Zimbabwe (Nepotism)
Zimbabwe a landlocked country located in southern Africa is considered one of the most
corrupt places in the world. Zimbabwe, in the previously discussed ranking index of 176
countries, is ranked 163rd of 176 in the 2012 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions
Index. (Transparency International, 2012). It might not help that the country is run by someone
who is considered a very corrupt president, Mr. Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe has been the president of Zimbabwe since 1987, it has been twenty eight
years of him ruling the country. Mugabe became president when the previous role as Prime
Minister was abolished, leading to his rule. Since 1987 president Mugabe has been re-elected in
1990, 1996, 2002 and 2008. In every election Mugabe was accused of not only electoral-fraud,
but vote rigging as well as intimidation. He has also caused some major economic problems; one
was raising the inflation of Zimbabwe to an unbelievable 1700 percent a year (Pal, 2014) or
the phoney bills and laws that he has set up like Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
Bill. Under the legislation, in every company with the majority white, the government will be
allowed to seize 51% of the business to make the majority black Zimbabweans. This was made
so that major corporation will have to find local black businessmen. The last president also
decided that he needed an additional 200 percent salary increase which he pleasantly gave to
himself.
Mugabe has also been accused of many corruption scandals. The ZimBank Lottery of
zood, 2000 Mugabe won the Zimbabwe Banking Corporation lottery for Z$100,000 which was
the first prize jackpot. The Diamond trade, in which an estimated 1 billion dollars profited in
profits were made, led to criticism that Mugabe made it personal revenue.. He decided to assign
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profitable enterprises in the Marange diamond field in to organizations including Zimbabwean
military and some Chinese firms.
But Mugabe in more recent corrupt acts has been accused of major Nepotism acts
regarding his wife who will be talking the presidency when Mugabe finishes his term. Many
newspapers are calling the scam the bedroom coup. The previous successor, Joice Mujuru, the
vice-president with whom he has been manipulating for the past 20 years and other under the
rule of Mujur decided that the role will go to the wife Grace Mugabe. Mujuru, infuriated by this
decision, decided to spill everything she knows about the corrupt government such as, saying the
president and his wife were involved in sordid dealings including illicit diamond deals,
extortion and demanding 10 per cent shares in private companies (Blair, 2014). Mr. Mugabe
decided to retaliate presenting points that showed why his wife was the best candidate and
accused the woman in a position of power for the last 34 years of wanting money (Blair,
2014). He also threatened her career saying that when the election comes the people will be
voting for a new leader indefinitely.
The bedroom coup is a clear sign of Mugabe is corruption in the form of Nepotism
because for a while he was training his wife to become a president; how to run the country, speak
properly etcetera. Also the lack of Graces formal education was a problem, so the president had
no problem when she acquired a doctorate from the University of Zimbabwe which just so
happened President Mugabe is the chancellor of. With a little help she became the head of the
Zanu-Pf womens league (the ruling party in Zimbabwe since the independence in 1980).
Finally someone tried to step in. M. Jabulani Sibanda, the leader of war Veterans
Association blamed Mugabe for plotting the bedroom coup to which Mugabe responded by
Sibanda was possessed by the spirit of Beelzebub (the Devil).
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Mugabes scandal has created a huge cultural problem for example taking away peoples
very hard earned work. Ms. Joice Mujuru is a great example; she has served her fair time trying
to make her way up to what was a promised position. The point is no one will want to try and
become a political leader since it is obvious that the presidency has to stay in the family tree. It
would also mean less people wanting to get a better education for the important government
roles, since it is all fixed and pre-arranged. No one would work for something expecting to get
promoted and 25 years latter nothing happens they just get blown over. It also raises a problem
that it will be hard to go against the government. If the voting is already pre-determined through
rigging no one will vote, since it obvious that their vote would really not matter.
It also affects the community because the corrupt government had a chance, granted a
small one, to change the power and finally have a non-corrupt government, by voting someone
new into office. The nepotism should not happen because as was pointed out Grace Mugabe
would continue the corrupt activities profiting off of them, as well as her husband. This would be
a nonstop train of corruption. The people will continue to lose a say in the votes due to the
electoral fraud, continue to have money which was intended for them be embezzled and stolen
from the government, as well as not being able to stop it easily since it goes so far back that the
people are used to it.
A huge problem that is the people will not have a say when it comes to nepotism cases.
The act in this case of Grace becoming president is a major step up from anything she was doing.
Now she would be controlling the country with her husbands helps. The problem with it is
people do not have the opportunity to vote for who they truly want, since the next in line has
already been chosen. This makes the culture of the people feel unvalued and unappreciated.
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There have been many attempts by high up government officials that to call out Mugabe
for this Nepotism scam. All lead to the officials getting arrested with some sort of excuse;
Jabualni Sibanda was arrested for suspicious behaviour from orders that came from the President
Grace. This also happened to numerous other officials who, fell with the ideas of former vicepresident Joice Mujuru. The corrupt government will do whatever is necessary to try and remain
on top. (Sibanda arrested over Mugabe bedroom coup remarks, 2015).
The major problems and attention Mugabe received for attempting to put his wife in the
position of president was decided with the termination of the bedroom coup. President Mugabe
noticed problems coming he made the educated decision and remains President. To this day he is
president in Zimbabwe and hinting to some major political figure for the next position. Mugabe
still remains president and is still corrupt. This shows us when you are in a position of power in a
country that is underdeveloped you rule them all.
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Afghanistan (Electoral Fraud)

Afghanistan is a land locked country located in central Asia. It has population of 32
million people, making it the forty second most populated country in the world, and is ranked
172nd of 175 out of the most corrupt countries.
This country is currently run by Mohammad Ashraf Ghani in what is supposed to be a
democratic government and is supposed to be celebrating their success for having clean elections
for 13 years. This was all put to a halt when in 2014 Abdullah Abdullah, one of the two
candidates running in their runoff voting system (a voting system used to elect a single winner,
whereby only two candidates from the first round continue to the second round.) was accused of
vote rigging and electoral fraud. The independent election commission whose vision is
supposedly to be An Organization that will continuously strengthen and promote democracy
through creating an atmosphere of trust, increasing the level of national participation, and
institutionalizing regular and credible elections in the country (Vission and Mission, 2015). This
is a country in which corruption is so common it becomes part of their everyday lives which is
no surprise to many. (Latfi, 2015)
Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, a Tajik Pashtun Politician who ran in the presidential election in
2014, was the leader in vote counts for the first round. He lost in the second to Ashraf Ghani
after months of disputing. The widespread and controversial electoral fraud scams.
This fraud scam was proven through a 12 minute telephone exchange between Zial-ulHaq, IEC Chief electoral officer and a member of the campaign Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, the
minister who was running against Abdullah Abdullah. This 12 minute conversation stated that
The (supporters of Ghani) are hired to stuff the sheep properly (Latfi, 2015) meaning from
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what Abdullahg team was able to figure out meant stuffing ballots. More evidence appeared
when the Amarkhail team was caught transporting ballots in Kabul from the I.E.C. headquarters.
This in turn led to multiple disputes and arguments between each campaign team, each
accusing the other of voters fraud. The evidence was placed on Abdullah Abdullah and his
opponent, although any form of evidence that has come up, has been denied.
Dr. Abdullah also suspended his engagement with the commission and demanded that the
chief electoral officer be removed and called for, the formation of a neutral committee to judge
his fraud claims. He also requested that all counting process be stopped instantly. This was all
due to the chairmen of the I.E.C which planned this election and who was in charge of counting
the votes. The tally from the first rounds turnout was 6.6 million votes in his region, as well as
the same or lower in the majority of the country where Mr. Ghani was based. (STANCATI,
2015). This raised concern with Abdullahs team since they believed that it was a scam. The
ballot counts were also statistically off; in some areas the count was way too high for it to make
sense.
This electoral fraud case is not the first of its kind in Afghanistan. In the 2009 election
there were multiple allegations of vote rigging in addition to electoral fraud. These cases are
usually dropped because of a lack of evidence.
Afghanistan is a country with a surplus of corruption which makes the population
question the cultural influence that it has on the people. There are major concerns from other
countries which have spent billions of dollars trying to make it a less corrupt and a more open
safe government. The clean election project has been somewhat successful but for the cost of
mass amounts of money that has been put into the project. This money could have been spent
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somewhere else like education or health, which are issue by themselves in the developing
country that is Afghanistan.
The electoral fraud case has voters thinking why we should vote if it really does not
matter in the first place. Afghanistan is supposed to be a democratic country but with all the
corruption it really depends on how much money you have. The more you can buy votes the less
you really need the people.
The people of Afghanistan do not believe that what they are doing is right under any
means. There have been many protests and street riots for this electoral fraud case. The largest
was 400 young men protesting with signs and posters down Main Street. The people are tired of
the life of corruption that they have lived with. Many People have stated that the turnout of who
wins the election is not the major problem. It is the fact that the government officials are using
their position of power to their advantage, and have been for so many years. The major riots and
protests state that The winner isnt important, what is, is that those who are corrupt are brought
to account. (Latfi, 2015). The people are so fed up with the corruption that they have decided it
is enough, they look at it because it is extremely unfair the protester says. They fought for their
country they should also have the right to decide who will be in charge. Jamal, 32, said he and
the 400 others gathered in Deh Mazang came to defend the rights of the people. Those who lost
fingers, those who lost their lives. (Latfi, 2015).
The influence also creates a winner no matter what the people want. The supposedly
clean democratic system is not so democratic. The majority of the people may not want the victor
to be in charge, the true winner might have been another candidate. These ballot rigging cases
demonstrate how the people really do not have a say in theses developing countries like
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Afghanistan. The government official who have all the power and control of the system, uses that
power to benefit themselves with actions like the electoral fraud scandal.
Theses corrupt people in power also means like every other case of political corruption,
that there is probably some money laundering involved, where again the people will not be
receiving the intended amount of money. These scams are really prevalent when the people do
not really have a say into who will be the next leader.
There have been many attempts to make Afghanistan a less corrupt country. The U.N.
have donated millions, plus the billions of other countries and organizations. What has to happen
from what Transparency International says is they must implement more standard general rules
and guidelines:
Promoting clean leaderships in key institutions, Make the Judiciary Independent,
Establish a best practice right to information, establish and independent anti-corruption
agency, make assets declaration mandatory for all those who hold power and
procurement transparency. (Challenging Corruption in Afgangistan, 2015).
These six points implemented properly would rid most if not all the corruption in Afghanistan.
Transparencies International is trying to get Afghanistan to implement all of the six but are
having misfortunate getting through to the government officials.
The electoral fraud has been a tough case to try and resolve, since there were over 500
complaints on Election Day alone. Government electoral watchdogs have spent weeks going
through each.
The U.S. has offered to send troops and requested 9800 remain in their country after their
combat mission in December 2013. The President stated that by law they are not allowed to
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accept the offer. The situation had taken months to resolve. Because of all the allegations
officials said that this is such an important matter and must be dealt with properly. The results
were promised to be published in July, months after the voting took place. The I.E.C. threw out
over one million ballots that were fraudulent. The suggestion of Dr. Adbullah is that the chief
electoral officer be removed; the suggestion was been ignored. There were also suggestions and
attempts to have the U.N. supervise Mr. Ghani because of the wide spread allegation of fraud,
which ended in the refusing of that offer because, With the utmost concern, the U.N. Mission
notes that appeals to circumvent or abandon the legal process and framework and appeal directly
to supporters could incite violence," (STANCATI, 2015). Through the entire affair Dr. Abdullah
said that his campaign stated that there will be overseers to the election commissions, in the
major area where there were serious cases of electoral fraud and vote stuffing. (STANCATI,
2015)
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International Organizations
There are many international organizations, both large and small, fighting the war on
corruption. There are three major organizations that have been established to help fight the global
issue of political corruption: Transparency International, One global movement sharing one
vision: a world in which government, business, civil society and the daily lives of people are free
of corruption (Transparency International, 2015), The Global Organization of Parliament
against Corruption (GOPAC) an international network of parliamentarians dedicated to good
governance and combating corruption throughout the world (GOPAC, 2015), and the United
Nations (U.N.) more specifically the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC)
a multilateral convention negotiated by members of the United Nations. It is the first global
legally binding international anti-corruption instrument (UNODC's Action against Corruption
and Economic Crime, 2015). These three major organizations have helped combat the clash
against corruption in many ways.
Transparency International is a non-profit organization that tries to prevent every kind of
corruption. It was founded in 1993 by a man called Peter Eigen, a lawyer and business man who
saw the global issue of corruption and decided that the non way that the world was looking at
corruption was wrong. Peter established Transparency International with the objective to abolish
corruption on a global scale. The first office for his non-profit organization was in Berlin, and he
had help from nine partners that were also fed up with the issue (Transparency International,
2015).
Since 1993, when it was first established, Transparency International has become a
major organization that has fought the fight against corruption through many successful projects.
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The open governance project that Transparency International attempts to implement
involves helping communities educate themselves about their governments. The objective to
strengthen the democracy, to hopefully show that it is the way governments should be let the
people have a say. Their reasoning is If citizens do not know how decisions are made, how taxes
are spent or who is responsible within governments, citizens cannot ensure governments are
working for their benefit. (Transparency International, 2012). They want to make sure those
citizens are not being played, rather fairly treated. The Open governance project is a project that
Transparency International has established in many locations and is spreading mostly in
in Ghana (Sub-Saharan Africa), Indonesia (South East Asia), Ukraine (Eastern and Central
Europe) and Peru (South America). This project has been so far very successful. They have
educated many people and established stronger democratic communities.
Transparency International has had many successful projects and very few failures due to
the volunteer community and the nonstop support of the members that have a problem with the
global issue of corruption. They have done so much advertising and so many projects that
involve spreading the word about corruption that Transparency International believes they are
one of the main reasons that Political Corruption was the worlds most talked about issue.
(Transparency International, 2015). It is no longer the frowned upon issue that it once was in the
past.
The Global Organization of Parliament against Corruption was created in 2002 in
Ottawa. It was founded by 170 political members and 400 observers, all of which were dedicated
to rid the world issue of corruption. This organization is active in fifty countries around the world
and is the only one where parliamentarians focus solely on combating corruption (Overview,
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2015). To promote agendas identified by membership through a regionally representative group
of parliamentarians that campaigns each topic.
The G.O.A.C solution to corruption is to spread and advertise their core values through
informing the general public. The vision of this organisation is to achieve accountability and
transparency through effective anti-corruption mechanisms and inclusive participation and
cooperation between parliamentarians, government and civil society (Overview, 2015). Their
core values are Integrity, Accountability, Collaboration and Diversity. The organisation attempt
to produce the most efficient problem solving teams, which are formed to target government
corruption sectors such as; Colon Anti-Money Laundering; Parliamentary Ethics and Conduct;
Parliamentary Oversight; Participation of Society, and the United Nations Convention Against
Corruption. These are the five main corruption scandals that happen word wide and G.O.A.C.
does everything that they can to try and prevent them (GOPAC, 2015).
They have accomplished a small goal of spreading their core values throughout a few
countries. What they have accomplished helps the global issue of corruption because informing
is the first step. Their parliament oversees projects where they watch over government officials
for possible flaws or defects in the system. This project oversees that every dime is spent in the
appropriate place as well as all of the people are paying their appropriate part. The G.O.A.C. also
has annual conferences that involve many countries government representatives to try and
resolve political corruption. These conventions provide solutions for countries to respond to, in
order to change to achieve their values to make a safer government that indefinitely helps the
people (GOPAC, 2015).
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G.O.A.C. is a global organization that fights corruption. Although they are not the largest
organization, they are placed in the 50 countries and are heavily involved within those nations.
They spread the word and help the people to the best of their abilities.
The United Nations Convention against Corruption is a convention held each year that
has been around since 2002. Its goal is similar to the others: abolish corruption. It was originally
established because United Nations realised how well the convention against crime was doing, so
they looked at the possibility of the convention on corruption. It was founded because many
United Nations officials looked at corruption and were disgusted with it. So they thought a
convention that recognizes it as a problem and shows people how to deal with it, not only on a
domestic scale but also on an international level, might help. Their goal has always been to
prevent corruption. The good part about this convention, compared to others, is it moves from
country to country to inform every one of the international problem. (UNODC, 2015)
The early years of this convention only focused on the bigger problems, like bribery and
organized crime. As the years pass, political corruption has become more complex, luckily so
have the prevention measured that the U.N.C.A.C. have presented for fighting corruption.
(UNODC's Action against Corruption and Economic Crime, 2015)
In order to better handle the situation, the convention divides the issue of corruption into
eight chapters; general provision, preventive measures, criminalization and law enforcement,
international cooperation, asset recovery, technical assistants, mechanisms for implementation,
and final provisions. These eight chapters are one of the major benefits of this convention,
because each one is an expert. Therefore, the reader receives an in depth knowledge on the
problem compared to a general solution (UNODC, 2015).
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The U.N.C.A.C. has tried to get every country in the world to sign on, giving them the
right to have the convention in their country in order to defeat corruption. They have been very
successful, considering they have 140 out of 174 countries. The majority of the signatories are
very corrupt. They constantly try and have the countries that are not already on board to sign up.
The reason having every country is important is because it informs the people about the issue on
a global scale.
These three organizations discussed; Transparency International, Global Organization of
Parliament against Corruption and the United Nation Convention Against Corruption are the
biggest, most wide spread organizations that fight the war on corruption everywhere and have
proven the best results.
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Canadian Connection
Political corruption is a global issue that is present in every country around the world.
Even in more developed first world countries like Canada, the problem of corruption is
prevalent. Many cases of political corruption have happened in what is supposed to be a very
open democratic country. Even in a country that is ten of 175 countries on the corruption index
there still is political corruption.
There have been many cases of political corruption in the last years. Granted, due to the
development of Canada, they are generally stopped pretty quickly, but it still affects many of the
32 million people.
One example of this would be the Canadian senate expense scandal in 2012. This
involved three senators: Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau and Mac Harb where claiming travel and
living cost through the government. (if you live more than 100 kilometers from the capital,
government will fund you the money for expenses) using tax payers money so that you do not
have to pay for things themselves. They stated that, They were claiming that they had to come
from more than 100 kilometres to Ottawa to do their Senate business, when it appears they were
living all the time in the shadow of the Peace Tower. (MInsky, 2015) These major crimes are
fraud and incorrect/false information normally dealt with by imprisonment. In total they were
able to get an approximate 190 thousand dollars from the scam, all of which was taxpayers
money from the Senate Leaders account. It was working fine until the senate hired an auditing
firm to check up make sure everything was okay, that is when they realized that the money they
were receiving was neither proper nor legal funding. (MInsky, 2015)
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Once the government found out, they were each in serious trouble. They hired lawyers to
fight the auditing findings, and were all required to repay the money. They got off on the fact that
the housing allowance was not clear. Harb had to pay 51 thousand and resigned from his position
in the liberal caucus, but will still be sitting as an independent until the case is settled. Duffy paid
90 thousand before the audit, he was even released and decided to leave the conservative caucus
to become an independent member. Brazeau, who claimed that his fathers home 130 kilometers
outside of Ottawa was his primary house, after the audit Brazeau was suspended from the senate
due to this case as well as the sexual assault charges against him along with he had to repay a
$49,000 fee. (MInsky, 2015)
The result of this was Prime Minister Steven Harper was not impressed with these
politicians. This led to him trying to reform or even abolishes the senate, which he tried to get
passed through the Supreme Court of Canada but ended to be the senate reform required a
minimum of ten provinces to agree. It ended with the premiers deciding it was not important
enough to deal with. Although the majority of the population forty nine percent in a poll whether
or not to reform or abolish the senate though to do so, it was never changed.
Since this scandal the Royal Mounted Police has been told to do routine inspection as
well as auditing inspection. All so that we know the money is going in the right place.
This is one of very many cases that has happened in Canada. Even with all of the safety
measures that are in place the government still have flaws, where the people in power still try to
take advantage of the systems.
There seem to be recurring cultural effect to every scandal when political corruption is at
foot; this effect is it always affects the communities. To use the senate scam as an example, 190
thousand dollars was taken form tax payers money. This could have been put back into the
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community, in any way it is enough money to make a difference. Thankfully Canada has a lot of
safety measures in place, because without them who knows how far this could have gone.
So not only does the money not get put back into the community but also people do not
trust the government official anymore. Any respect or trust they did have is gone, since they
abused the system. People who believed that Canada has a safe government now are not sure
what to believe althought corruptin is not as common in Canada, as it is in underdeveloped
countries such as the Philippines.
The problem with not being able to trust the government officials is not only do
Canadians no longer trust politicians, neither do immigrants. Thinking they left all the corruption
behind because Canada has safety measures put in place and the open government system is fool
proof. They left the bad politicians back in their country and are now confused, because they feel
like they are in the same. This means that they still will not trust the voting systems because if
the funding had loop holes, the voting system must have some.
Another huge effect of political corruption is the massive amounts of money it takes to
investigate these things. Because of that one case Canada will have to pay more R.C.M.P. to go
around looking for corruption as well as the auditors, plus all the court cases and lawyers and
officials that must be paid using taxpayers money because three corrupt politicians wanted some
extra cash. They stole 190 thousand dollars but the government of Canada will most likely have
to pay ten times that amount to have everything settled so it does not happen again.
This dramatically affects Canada because of the political corruption that is involved in the
country it receives a worse reputation of being corrupt. This will mean a worse economy because
leaders are finding new ways to abuse the system. This means less immigration because people
who live in countries that have corruption will not want to come and live in Canada, because
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they are trying to leave to the corruption which means less flow of money and in turn a lower
economy. This has been proven whith the conversation that M. Sam Patal had with and
interviewer. This is very outlandish statement but it is still an accurate representation of what
could happen. This has happened in the Philippines where they are all trying to leave because of
the vast corruption in every sector, so they immigrate somewhere else, weakening the
Philippines economy.
All of this to say that corruption does not only occurs in countries that are
underdeveloped and are frowned upon but it happens everywhere. That is why political
corruption is a global issue.
Canadas role in all of this corruption is the same as everyone elses. The government
should and is in a small way announcing and letting the people know about the global issue that
is corruption. Canada has already put in place many anti-corruption ideas and acts; the OCED
Anti-bribery act and the Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials business transactions are
just a few. There is also the very open government concept that Canada is involved in. At every
stage of government the citizen in charge must undergo several open data transactions, accounts
and expenses to hopefully help show and more easily easier identify if money is missing. In most
cases in Canada, although there is some corruption in the higher government officials
municipals governments usually are not corrupt (Government of Canada, 2015). The people who
have the most power find loop holes.
The country of Canada is also involved in many
situations trying to help other countries fight corruption. Since Canadas corruption is on the
smaller scale or less frequent their do they part by trying to implement some of our strategies and
idea to help fight corruption in lesser more underdeveloped countries.
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Although Canada is not a perfect country, with many smaller scale corruption crimes, it is
one of the best in the world when it comes to corruption, which could be due to the many
strategies they have put in place to stop political corruption.
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Solutions
Political corruption is an ongoing problem which is incredibly hard to stop because
people want to be ritcher and if they can they will. When political leaders are put in a position of
power it is almost inevitable that those people will eventually become corrupt. Not everyone, but
there will always be someone who wants more power. That is sad reality, because it affects the
people they are in charge of in terrible ways
The ways that people can live in a world with less corruption because it is impossible to
abolish, it are simple. We could educate the communities that are uniformed of what political
corruption is as well as the measures they must take to stop it, transform governments into open
democratic government and enforcing the law on political corruption abuse. These three
solutions will help any government combat the fight against political corruption.
Most countries that are facing the worst in political corruption are the countries where the
education and public systems are terrible. The average literacy rate for the countries that are
affected the most by corruption is under fifty percen (INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DATA
2013 , 2015)t. Educating the people about what political corruption is would let them know how
to deal with it, make them aware of what their being abused of as well as the procedures needed
to stop it.
If the people new that what they have lived with their whole lives is against the law and
they could be living better and more in peace, then people would react to this. If there are
programs that tell people what to do when it happens, the people will not leave it alone. They
will demand, protest and riot until they feel that they receive everything they deserve. If people
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knew the proper steps on how to stop the bad corruption, they would eventually get it done in a
more civil manner, as well not losing lives or going to jail for what they deserve in the first place.
Educating people has been a strategy used by many organization including Transparency
International that have implemented the educating the people program and has proven to work
extremely well. They claim that Having a wealth of information can help in the fight against
corruption, but it is most useful and effective when structured and organised so that practitioners
and activists can access the right information they need at the right time (Transparency
International , 2015). They have tried and been very successful in the areas that the program has
been implemented but since the issue is on such a large scale there are some downsides to it. The
world is very large and it takes a lot of money, let alone people to educate the people. This means
that this program would take a long time but would show great success.
Educating people on corruption is a great solution but is one that takes a while and a lot
of resources. If implemented it has been proven to work well because people do not like to be
treated unfairly.
Another solution is to transform the government into an open democratic government.
This solution would involve any country that is anything but open democratic (government that
shows all of the assets and keeps track of all expensive) to becoming open and democratic. Since
the people will have a right to speak, the people of those countries will notice if the money is
missing and it lets anyone know if there are rules being broken.
An open democracy would mean all the government members would have to keep an
open book on their spending money; this would also mean that the books would have to be
checked frequently to make sure everything is working to plan, so that nothing goes missing. If
the people or at least the officials were able to see what politicians did with the money they
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Mathieu Aubin
received, then whoever wanted to could inspect and recognize something has gone missing. This
would lead to some kind of punishment
The politicians would also be less keen to do corrupt activities because everything would
be marked down. The proof of this is Canada. Politicians must always document withdrawls for
accounts and how they spent the money. This is watched through many securities and the open
democratic system in Canada has brought them to the tenth of 174 countries in the corruption
index. They must also get permission to access those accounts, which is effective because with
constant monitoring, such as audits every six months, then it is difficult to steal money.
This has been implemented by countries and enforced by organizations. The United
States has tried to implement the ideology in developing countries. The problem with it is the
leaders are not thrilled to implement the ideas because it is not how their governments have
applied their policies over the years. The only way to get them to sign would be pushing them
which has been proven by history not to work well and can/ has led to conflicts and wars.
(Carothers, 2015)
The open democracy solution is a great solution that is very effective and works well but
has a downside to it. Countries do not want to change the way their government works because
its their way. If it does change then the success is almost guaranteed.
The last solution that will help prevent political corruption is to enforce the punishment
on these scams. Enforcing the law would help the countrys problem since politicians will be less
likely to try and commit these acts, if they were actually getting punished for them.
In developing countries people are letting corruption slide due to the fact that they have
been living with it for their entire lives. Usually in developing countries the government has
46
Mathieu Aubin
corrupt police and other public organizations. So the politicians can get away with it because no
one enforces it.
The solution would mean to employ people that will enforce it, people who would not
take a bribe. Sadly the world is not full of those. This solution would require a lot of support
from outside countries help to donate troops so the corruption will stop, although as said
previously countries do not like when others try implementing new rules.
This solution has been tried by the U.N. in some developing countries but not very many
because countries do not like to accept that they need it. The solution is not the most effective,
because corruption is usually so deep that unless you involve the people of the corrupt countries
then it will usually end up failing and corrupt people do not want to give up their power or
wealth and they do not want to be punished.
The three solutions that have been mentioned, educating the communities that are
uniformed of what political corruption is as well as the measures they must take to stop it,
transform government into an open democratic government and enforcing the law on political
corruption to those who abuse it are all very good solutions that all involve a lot of work and
have been attempted with high success rates. The reason that political corruption is still around
even with successful solutions, is the reason that political corruption is an issue on such a large
scale that people are always finding new ways to get more power or money, which is very hard
to stop.
47
Mathieu Aubin
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