An informative presentation on political corruption, its causes, effects and what the future holds for it.

1. Global Perspective Group Project
Outcome: Political Corruption
By Meharbash Kashif, Le Anh Tu and Nguyen
Thanh Long

2. What is political
corruption?
• Political corruption is mainly the
abuse of high power and
authority by government officials
in order to accrue capital or gain
personal benefits such as financial
benefits. Some examples include:
• Bribery
• Embezzlement
• Kickbacks
• Patronage

3. Two forms of political corruption
• Political corruption can be of two forms. The first one
being the withdrawal of capital from private sector
businesses or the general government revenues.
Some examples of this form of political corruption is:
- Pillage
- embezzlement
- Kleptocracy
• The second form is when officials withdraw from
public resources to ensure their hold of power and to
continue their authority into the future. This can be
through means of financial benefits or general
incentives. Some examples of how politicians take
advantage of this type of political corruption is
through:
- patronage

4. Causes of corruption in government
• Many of the politicians strive to become rich
and in the top tier of society. In order to buy
luxury products however, they need high
incomes(3)(IMF, May 1998)
• According to a report by the International
Monetary Fund, ‘workers who don’t receive a
fair wage…may change actual effort…or their
perceived level of remuneration.’(1)(IMF, June
1997)
• Most corrupt governments don’t have a fair
wage system, especially in developing
countries which can lead to officials being
dissatisfied and carrying out corrupt actions to
satisfy their personal greed(2)(Voxeu.org, June
2013).
The table above compares Philippine
government officials salaries to American
counterparts. The US officials are paid
more and are able to afford housing much
better than the Filipinas. This indirectly
indicates that due to the harsh salaries,
Filipinas are more corrupt than the
Americans.(22)(Michaeldselllers, nd)

5. • Another example of this is in India with politician BS
Yeddyurappa(5)(Mensxp, n.d).
• Salary: $180 or 12,000 rupees per month(in
2012)(4)(Indian Express, n.d)
• Position: Chief Minister of Karnataka(Indian province)
• Although his position is quite high, his salary doesn’t
represent that which is why he carried out corrupted
actions like:
- Hiking up his salary by 150% to 30,000
rupees($450)
- allegedly took part in the illegal exportation of iron
ore which transported 3500000 metric tonnes of iron to a
local port without a license to have monetary
gain(7)(Indian Express, July 2010)
- illegally acquiring forest land owned by the
government for his own purposes during his Chief Ministry
between 2008 and 2013(6)(Indian Express, October 2014)

6. Poor Economic Conditions• It has been proven that most developing countries have more political corruption due to
their economic conditions and high dependence on primary industries like materials
exportation. Due to the volatile changes in these markets, governing bodies are usually very
unstable which can lead to a lack of funding. This all indirectly leads to increased poverty as
the government isn’t able to fully invest in developing the country. It can also frustrate the
politicians as their funding gets slashed, affecting their salaries, overall encouraging the
politicians to take alternative, usually corrupt, ways to gain more capital.
• Areas with more foreign aid can also increase political corruption as the government rather
keeps the donations for themselves rather than invest it.
Example: Haiti
• Haiti during the devastating Haiti earthquakes in 2010
• More than $9bn donated from public and private donations to help build the infrastructure
and house the survivors but 85,000 people still in camps according to a 2014 UN
report(8)(NBC news, Jan 2015). 36% of the donations allegedly went to fund the
organizations themselves or private contractors allegedly who have taken are being
politically corrupt.

7. The diagram on the right shows how
corrupt countries are with red
indicating most corrupt. We can see a
direct correlation here, with developing
countries usually regarding their
primary sector as most important being
the most corrupt(eg. Ethiopia,
Afghanistan). This proves our theory
that poor economic conditions and a
high dependency on supplying to
foreign markets can lead politicians to
be more corrupt as the market prices
are fluctuating and can fail at any time.
(20)(Transparency Korea, nd)

8. Effects of corruption on politicians
The politicians are less likely to participate in fruitful political
activity since they can get more than what they pay, just by
participating in political corruption. This leads to disruption
and weakening of the government structure, reducing
governmental productivity and development. Ultimately
political corruption corrupts the politicians and in directly leads
to them losing respect in the public is their ways are revealed.
Overall, creating a high intensity social unrest amongst the
public.

9. Effects of corruption on
people(locally and nationally)
Lack of quality in public services: Due to the high rates of political corruption, less money would be
reserved to invest in public services, therefore lowering their efficiency and quality of services. The
only way to achieve good service would be then be by paying extra for it, lowering the individual's
money but also this money usually just goes towards more corrupt politicians, creating an endless
cycle. South Sudan is one of the most corrupted countries in the world, ended up having the worst
healthcare and education among others. This is seen in many areas like municipality, electricity,
distribution of relief funds etc
Another effect that political corruption has is on public education. In spot of LEDC's, many people
aren't able to afford the expensive private education so public education is their only option but the
quality is again being compromised due to politicians taking money away from their funds. This
leads to a lack of well educated youths, who therefore aren't able to get jobs, increasing
unemployment rates. Due to the corruption at the early 2016 in Philippines, Philippines
unemployment rate stood at 5.8 percent in January of 2016 but it slightly up from the next month
by 0.1 percent.(19)(Mindcontroversy, October 2012)

10. Future: Utopian if corruption is
destroyed
If corruption is destroyed, the entire country will be greatly,
positively affected in many ways:
-increased health and education due to better public services:
-less criminal activity such as bribery, evasion and patronage
leading to public opinion becoming more positive and
supporting the government
-safer environment therefore increasing immigration
-Higher GDP
Likeliness: highly possible and have realistic examples like
Singapore, a previously extremely corruption country that is
now one of the financial capitals of the world and has very low
crime rates.

11. • The graph on the right shows the control
over corruption in many selected countries
around the globe.
• According to the graph, Singapore is a top
tier country when it comes to preventing
corruption.
• Singapore is on the list of the top 4
countries that has the best education
systems in the world. It is said that
Singapore’s system is equally good as the
UK, and potentially surpassing it in the near
future (11).
• Singapore is also known for it’s low crime
rate, top 2 in the world and Asia and holds
the crown in South East Asia (12).
(10)
(15)

12. • South Sudan gained its independence in 2011 after the war
with Sudan. This left South Sudan with a corrupted country
with low education rate and a high crime rate.
• South Sudan on the other hand is one of the most corrupted
countries in the world, ranked 163 out of 168 countries
collected.
• By this mean, it is the least educated country with a literacy
rate of 27% (14).
• In addition to that, South Sudan came second in criminal
activities right after Venezuela.
• Comparing to Singapore, one of the top tier country around
the globe, we can see the differences from the two countries.
The root of the difference is the corruption rate of the two
countries.
• If South Sudan tries to decrease the amount of corruption
that is occurring in its country, the possibility of it becoming
like Singapore is easily achievable.
(13)
(15)

13. Future: dystopian
The most likely scenario is political corruption continues is a dystopian one. This has been seen in many countries like Italy which
was prosperous but collapsed when corrupted officials took over. If not stopped, the future of corrupted countries may hold:
• Increased mafia activity. In relation to Italy, the Cosa Nostra or so called the Sicilian mafia. During the 1990s, the Cosa
Nostra took an advantage of the weakness coming out from the central state of Italy and was able to substitute themselves
from the authorities. Nevertheless, during the post war era, Italy’s government became stronger with the modernisation of
south Italy. This caused changes in the relationship of Cosa Nostra with the government of Italy, making them weaker. What
this shows is that if the authorities are corrupted, the chance of mafia’s taking illegal actions will be increased significantly
(18).
• Increased wealth gap
• Decrease in public service standards. In terms with Italy, corruption has caused them 60 billion Euros annually to be wasted
in public resources, resulting in a lack of funding and therefore a poor public service system.
• Machinery also takes part in this problem. According to the World Economic forum, the suggested year that the first AI will
appear to be 2026, 10 years away from today (16). The development of machinery can create an new era for corruption
where machines can function themselves can continue to corrupt without any trace of human. This reduces the risk that can
be cause to people that are having the state of mind to corrupt (17).(23)

14. Possible Solutions
• Empowering our community and society at all levels(local, national and global) to
have an entirely negative view towards political corruption. Whistleblower
programs(eg. India’s Whistleblower protection program) should be put in place
and strengthened in order for society to get rid of political corruption at the root:
the political activity itself
• Pay enough wages for the authorities in order to give them a state of mind not to
corrupt. Paying wages accordingly to the living conditions of the nation limits
greed and also does not encourage politicians to solicit money illegally.
• Create Anti-corruption Bodies (21).
• Community should have educated votes for which politician should be elected. In
a democracy, ultimately the choice is in the hands of the people themselves so if
they expose and vote a politician out by voting, they can stop political corruption
before it even starts. (25)(Interview Video, nd)

15. Sources
(1)(IMF, Date written: June 1997, Date retrieved: Feb 28th 2016)
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/wp9773.pdf
(2)(Voxeu, Date written: June 2013, Date retirved: Feb 28th 2016)
http://www.voxeu.org/article/higher-government-wages-may-reduce-corruption
(3)(IMF, Date written: June 1998, Date retrieved: Feb 28th 2016)
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/wp9863.pdf
(4)(Indian Express, n.d, Date retrieved: Feb 29th 2016)
http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/article432371.ece?service=print
(5)(Mensxp, n.d, Date retrieved: FEb 29th 2016)
http://www.mensxp.com/special-features/today/5609-10-most-corrupt-indian-politicians.html
(6)(Indian Express, Date written: October 2014, Date retrieved: March 1st 2016 ) )http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/corruption-cases-against-
former-karnataka-cm-yeddyurappa-eshwarappa-family-reinstated/
(7)(Indian Express, written: July 2010, retrieved: March 1st 2016) http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/yeddyurappa-admits-iron-ore-racket/640829/
(8)(NBC news, written: Jan 12 2015, retrieved: March 1 2016)http://www.nbcnews.com/news/investigations/what-does-haiti-have-show-13-billion-earthquake-aid-
n281661
(9)(The Guardian, n.d, retrieved: March 1st 2016) http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/jan/14/haiti-earthquake-where-did-
money-go
(10) (priceschool.usc.edu, n.d, retrieved: March 1st 2016)
http://priceschool.usc.edu/files/2013/08/Lien-forum-Beijing-Speech-JHKedit-2012.pdf
(11) (eblogfa.com,n.d, retrieved: March 17th 2016)
http://eblogfa.com/6616/top-20-best-education-systems-countries-in-the-world
(12) (elist10.com, 2015,retrieved March 17th 2016)
http://www.elist10.com/top-10-countries-lowest-recorded-crime-rate/

16. Sources
(13) (transparency.org, 2015, retrieved March 17th 2016)
https://www.transparency.org/country/#SSD
(14) (insidermonkey.com, 2015, retrieved March 18th 2016)
http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/11-least-educated-countries-in-the-world-347958/
(15) (numbeo.com, 2016, retrieved March 18th 2016)
http://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_by_country.jsp
(16) ( weforum.org, 2015, retrieved March 18th 2016)
http://www.weforum.org/reports/deep-shift-technology-tipping-points-and-societal-impact
(17) ( weforum.org, 2015, retrieved March 18th 2016)
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/10/3-insights-on-the-future-of-corruption/
(18) (bunker8.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk, n.d, retrieved March 18th 2016)
http://www.bunker8.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/orgcrim/mafiacor.htm
(19)(Mind Controversy, October 28th 2012, Retrieved: March 18th 2016)
http://www.mindcontroversy.com/impact-effects-corruption-public-life-india/
(20)(Transparency Korea, nd, retrieved: March 18th)
http://www.transparency-korea.org/2014/12/2014-corruption-perception-index-report/
(21)(hubpages.com, nd, retrieved March 18th 2016)
http://hubpages.com/politics/corruption-solutionandcuses
(22)(Michaeldsellers, nd, retrieved: 18th March 2016)
http://www.michaeldsellers.com/blog/2011/11/22/thoughts-on-corruption-in-the-philippines/
(23)( newyorker.com, 2015,retrieved March 19th 2016)
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/01/19/corruption-revolt
(24)(Global security, n.d, date retrieved: March 18th 2016) http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/it-corruption.htm
(25)(Interview Video, 18th March,
retrieved: 18th March)