Corruption glossary
Many of the concepts used in circles of international development and social science - and in the particular discussions of combatting corruption, including this web site - are characterised by the utilisation of uncommon concepts, technical language or jargon. Click on the below concepts for a short and precise explanation.
The answers
What do we mean by:
Access to information
The opportunity or right to get, see and use information, and to gain
knowledge about information collected, maintained and disseminated
by the government. Freedom of information and public access to information
is a democratic right, usually codified in laws, stating that government
information should be available to the public, and that any exceptions
should be limited and specific. The public has the right to know in
order to increase government accountability, and to reduce confidentiality
and secrecy, which breeds corruption.
What do we mean by:
Accountability
Accountability is the constraints placed on the behaviour of politicians
and public officials by state institutions, organisations and constituencies
having the power to apply sanctions. Accountability has three basic
components: transparency, answerability and controllability. Accountability
is the responsibility of a public institution, official or politician
to carry out a given mandate and to justify his decisions and actions
according to applicable rules and regulations. Democratic accountability
is the idea that people entrusted with political power owns accountability
to 'the people'; both directly through elections and indirectly through
delegated authority to institutional checks and controls.
What do we mean by:
Active and passive corruption
Active corruption or 'active bribery' is the offence committed
by the person who promises or gives the bribe; as contrasted to 'passive
bribery' which is the offence committed by the official who receives
the bribe. Active bribery is the supply side, passive bribery the
demand side.
In legal lingo (according to the Treaty on European Union, Criminal Law Convention on Corruption, for instance), active bribery is the "deliberate action of whosoever promises, offers or gives, directly or through an intermediary, an undue advantage of any kind whatsoever to a person, for himself or for a third party, in the course of the business activities of that person in order that the person should perform or refrain from performing an act, in breach of his duties". Similarly, passive corruption is "the deliberate action of a person who, in the course of his business activities, directly or through an intermediary, requests or receives an undue advantage of any kind whatsoever, or accepts the promise of such an advantage, for himself or for a third party, for him to perform or refrain from performing an act, in breach of his duties".
The EU Treaty is on business transactions (private to private corruption),
but the definition holds for anyone in a public position, too. The
UN Convention, therefore, does not utilise the term "active bribery"
simply to avoid it being misread by the non-technical reader as implying that
the briber has taken the initiative and the recipient is a passive victim. In
fact, in a number of situations, the recipient will have induced or pressured
the briber and will have been, in that sense, the more active.
What do we mean by:
Auditing
Official examination of an organisation or institution's accounts, to make sure money has been spent correctly, i.e. according to rules, regulations and norms. Audit institutions like national and regional Auditor Generals, Audit Offices, State Comptrollers, Ombudsmen, Tribunals de Cuentas, Cours de Comptes etc. make a vital contribution to good governance by detecting poor management and inappropriate use of public money. Auditing institutions can be seen as the taxpayers' independent and professional watchdogs. Synonyms: examination, scrutiny, look at the books, inspect.
What do we mean by:
Baksheesh
Originally, baksheesh [backsheesh, bakshis, backsheesh] is Arabic for a relatively small amount of money given to a beggar or for services rendered (as by a waiter): alms, tips, gratuity, pourboire. ("Do you want to see what's in the tomb which is closed? Baksheesh!"). Often inflated and not necessarily legitimate, thus synonymous with bribe or grease money.
What do we mean by:
Bribery
Bribery is the act of offering someone money or other valuables, in order to persuade him to do something for you. Bribery is corruption by definition. Bribes are also called kickbacks, payola, hush money, sweetener, protection money, boodle, gratuity etc. Bribery is practiced at all levels from private familiar situations to international politics. Bribing of foreign officials is banned through the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials.
What do we mean by:
Bureaucratic corruption
Bureaucratic, administrative or "petty" corruption takes place in the public administration, at the implementation end of politics, where the public meets with public officials. Bureaucratic corruption is usually distinguished from high level, "grand" political corruption (to the extent it is possible to distinguish administration from politics).
What do we mean by:
Checks and Balances
The idea of separation of powers to hinder power abuse. Checks and balances are the constitutional controls whereby basically the three branches of government (the executive, legislative and judicial, but also other state institutions) have limiting powers over each other so that no branch will become supreme. It is a democratic system of "mixed" government that includes multi-layer institutional controls, active examination and verification of laws, finances and other policies.
What do we mean by:
Clientelism
Clientelism is an informal relationship between people of different social and economic status: a 'patron' (boss, big man) and his 'clients' (dependents, followers, protégés). The relationship includes closeness and a mutual but unequal exchange of favours, which can be corrupt. An informal but sophisticated hierarchic network in most developing countries that penetrates formal roles and position. Long lasting patrimonial and clientelist practices can institutionalise hegemonic elites and embedded political corruption, in a system sometimes reaching all the way up to the president of the republic.
What do we mean by:
Conflict of interest
The dilemma or incompatible principles of an individual in an official position with a (formal and written) responsibility to serve the public, but where informal cultural or moral claims and obligations exist for him/her to serve his/her own interests and the interests of his/her dependants (family, friends, allies). It is when such personal interests appear to influence the objective exercise of his/her official duties. A conflict of interest compromises objective professional judgment, objectivity and independence.
What do we mean by:
Competitive bidding
A selection process based on the principle of open and transparent advertisement and selection of bidders of an item or service, securing that the best bidder wins according to qualifications, value and other objective criteria (and consequently not according to family or friendship ties, bribery or threats). Often required by law on public contracts and purchases above a certain value.
What do we mean by:
Cronyism
Cronyism is favourable treatment of your old friends and 'buddies'; it is favouritism, confidentiality and preferential treatment based on long-standing friendship; camaraderie.
What do we mean by:
Embezzlement
Embezzlement is misappropriation, to take or steal from you employer for your own use. It is misuse of property that you have access or is legally entrusted to you in your formal position or job as a servants, agents, trustee, or guardian. In legal terms embezzlement is an economic crime, it is theft or larceny but not corruption because there is no briber involved.
What do we mean by:
Extortion
Extortion is unlawful demanding or receiving by an officer, in his official capacity, of any property or money not legally due to him, by using force, fear or excessive authority. Extortion includes requesting fees in excess of those allowed, under pretence of duty. A typical example of extortion is roadblocks manned by armed police or military men who exact money for your passage. Other words for the same would be blackmail, bloodsucking and extraction.
What do we mean by:
Favouritism
Favouritism is normal human proclivity to favour friends, family and anybody close and trusted. It is biased and favourable treatment based on closeness and obligations, due to clientelism or to ethnic, clan, religious, family (see nepotism), friendship (see cronyism) or any other affinity. Favouritism is also the penchant of state officials and politicians, who have access to state resources and the power to decide upon the distribution of these, to give preferential treatment to certain people when distributing resources.
What do we mean by:
Fraud
Fraud is economic crime involving deceit, trickery or false pretences, by which someone gains unduly. An actual fraud is motivated by the desire to deceive another to his harm, while a constructive fraud is a profit made from a relation of trust. Synonyms: Swindle, imposition, deceit, double-dealing, cheat, and bluff.
What do we mean by:
Gift giving
Gift giving is a cultural practice in many societies, as described in anthropology, by which people offer presents and favours in various circumstances according to local custom and practice. The problem is that giving gifts, in particular to public officials, might contradict the principles of impartiality, professionalism, and meritocracy, and be regarded as bribery or corruption.
What do we mean by:
Graft
Graft (verb) is to obtain money dishonestly by using your position of power, especially political power [American English]. Graft is understood as political corruption with an element of greediness. Graft (noun) is the rewards of corruption: the loot, booty, payoffs, or spoils.
What do we mean by:
Grand corruption
High level or "grand" corruption takes place at the policy formulation end of politics. It refers not so much to the amount of money involved as to the level in which it takes place: grand corruption is at the top levels of the public sphere, where policies and rules are formulated in the first place. Usually (but not always) synonymous to political corruption.
What do we mean by:
Grease money
Bribes, seen from the angle of the briber and alluding to the drop of oil given to a squeaky wheel of excessive bureaucracy to make the things move smoothly again. Also called softener, sweetener, gift …
What do we mean by:
Holistic approach
To address corruption effectively an holistic approach is needed, which is to examine the sum total of the institutions and practices within a given country that address aspects of maintaining the honesty and integrity of government and private sector institutions. It includes each of the institutions (pillars) from the executive, legislature and judiciary, to the private sector, the media and civil society organisations, the various institutional inter-relationships and the equilibrium of the system as a whole.
What do we mean by:
Incentives
An incentive is an inducement or stimulus (the carrot or the stick), that encourages you to do something. Incentive theory provides a conceptual framework for analysing the role and potential of recruitment and promotion mechanisms, detection and penalties, and different wage systems in improving the efficiency of public agencies. Incentives theory challenges for instance the simplistic view that feasible pay rises will always solve fraud in public administration. Note that an incentive might also be a bribe, persuading officials to return undue favours to a briber.
What do we mean by:
Integrity system
Integrity is the quality of being honest and firm in your moral principles and in what you do. An integrity system is a political and administrative set-up that encourages integrity. A country's National Integrity System comprises all those government and non-governmental institutions that have the ability to work together to achieve high standards of national integrity and low levels of corruption and maladministration, both individually and as system of accountability whereby each acts as a watchdog over the actions of at least one other. The establishment of an effective, transparent and accountable National Integrity System fragments power and paves the way for a well-governed state.
What do we mean by:
Integrity pact
The Integrity Pact is a system to prevent corruption in public
contracts. One of the parties is a central, local or municipal government,
a government's subdivision or even a state-owned enterprise (the Authority).
The other party is usually the private company interested in obtaining
such contract, or in charge of implementing it. In the process of
projects ordered by the administration, such as bids, contracts, and
implementation, both the administration and companies pledge that
they will not bribe or take bribes, and that they would accept punishment
if they break it.
Transparency International: Integrity pacts
What do we mean by:
Interest peddling
When a professional solicits benefits in exchange for using his influence to unfairly advance the interests of a particular person or party. For instance when you give election or party financing in exchange for influence. Transparency and disclosure laws, for instance, rest on the assumption that improper influence peddling, or quid pro quo conduct, cannot prevail in the spotlight of publicity; and aims at curbing corruption by the idea that "sunlight is a disinfectant".
What do we mean by:
Kickbacks
Kickback is a bribe, the 'return' of an undue favour or service rendered, an illegal secret payment made as a return for a favour. The word describes a bribe as seen from the angle of the bribed. For example, I give you a favour and you give me a kickback, a little something, in return. Used to describe - in an 'innocent' way - the returns of a corrupt or illegal transaction or the gains from rendering a special service. Also called a percentage, share, cut, commission, payoff, recompense, etc.
What do we mean by:
Kleptocracy
(From klepto - to steal, and - kratos - rule: 'rule by looters'). Kleptocracy is a political system dominated by those who steal from the state coffers, those who treat the ministry of finance as their private purse and practices extortion as the mode of rule; when the organs of authority are determined by the mechanisms of supply and demand rather than the laws and regulations. Among the more well known former kleptocrats we can list Duvalier ('papa Doc') of Haiti, Mobutu of Zaïre, Bokassa of the Central African Republic, and Suharto of Indonesia.
What do we mean by:
Money laundering
Money laundering is the process whereby the identity of dishonest and/or illegally obtained money (corruption proceeds) is transformed so that it appears to have originated from a legitimate source (legitimate businesses). The forms of money laundering are inexhaustible, but drug traffickers, parties involved in organised crime, kleptocrats and white-collar criminals can be considered the main users of money laundering. Bank secrecy and tax havens facilitates money laundering.
What do we mean by:
Nepotism
Nepotism is favouritism, but usually used to indicate a form of favouritism that involves your family members. Nepotism is favouritism based on family ties; it is when someone who has power or authority uses this to get jobs or other favours for members of his own family, close relatives, kit and kin. Nepotism can take place at all levels of the state, from a post office manned largely by one extended family to the state élite. Many unrestricted presidents have tried to secure their (precarious) power position by nominating family members to key political, economic and military/security positions in the state apparatus. When "successful", deeply nepotist systems are getting closer to a "mafia" because of the shared family "values" and loyalties.
What do we mean by:
Patronage
Patronage is the support or sponsorship of a patron (wealthy or influential guardian). In a clientelist relationship it is "kindness" done with an air of superiority and authority. Patronage is for instance to make appointments to government jobs, promotions, contracts for work, etc. But, there is 'no such thing as a free lunch': patrons are using patronage to keep a clientele, and to gain power, wealth and status. Patronage transgresses the boundaries of legitimate political influence, and violates the principles of merit and competition.
What do we mean by:
Petty corruption
Small scale, bureaucratic or petty corruption is the everyday corruption that takes place at the implementation end of politics, where the public officials meet the public. Petty corruption is bribery in connection with the implementation of existing laws, rules and regulations, and thus different from "grand" or political corruption. Petty corruption refers to the modest sums of money usually involved, and has also been called "low level" and "street level" to name the kind of corruption that people can experience more or less daily, in their encounter with public administration and services like hospitals, schools, local licensing authorities, police, taxing authorities and so on.
What do we mean by:
Political corruption
Political corruption is any transaction between private and public sector actors through which collective goods are illegitimately converted into private-regarding payoffs. Political corruption is often used synonymously with "grand" or high level corruption, distinguished from bureaucratic or petty corruption because it involves political decision-makers. Political or grand corruption takes place at the high levels of the political system, when politicians and state agents entitled to make and enforce the laws in the name of the people, are using this authority to sustain their power, status and wealth. Political corruption not only leads to the misallocation of resources, but it also perverts the manner in which decisions are made. Political corruption is when the laws and regulations are abused by the rulers, side-stepped, ignored, or even tailored to fit their interests. It is when the legal bases, against which corrupt practices are usually evaluated and judged, are weak and furthermore subject to downright encroachment by the rulers.
What do we mean by:
Prebends
Prebends were originally the right of clergy to the revenues of a cathedral or temple, or the share of this revenue to which any member of clergy was entitled. Now also describing other non-productive revenues, "rents" or "rentier" income, like for instance bribes and corruption. Like the feudal prebends, modern prebends can be understood as the profits of "privatisation" and parcelling out of state power.
What do we mean by:
Principal-agent theory
Most public and private organisations are organised hierarchically. The key relationship in a hierarchy is the one between a subordinate employee (agent) and his or her superior (principal). Incentive or principal-agent theory highlights the importance of divergent objectives, asymmetric information, incentives and penalties, recruitment and salaries etc. The agent can for instance gain advantages by holding back information from his principal. The theory has been used to construct micro-economic explanations of corruption and to design institutional reforms to it.
What do we mean by:
Protected disclosure
A protected disclosure is a statement or report about serious wrongdoing, like corrupt conduct, mal-administration and substantial waste of public money. It is an admission or revelation that - when fulfilling certain requirements - entitles the person who made the disclosure to support and protection from reprisals, victimisation or even prosecution. Protected disclosures are made internally in the organisation, or to an Ombudsman or someone with the power to ensure witness protection. See also whistle-blower protection.
What do we mean by:
Spoilation
Law defines the term spoilation as the destruction, loss or alternation of evidence; more broadly it is to destroy something valuable, damage or plunder. Spoilation (indigenous or national spoliation) is when heads of states and other high-ranking officials are stripping and taking by force the wealth of their states (see kleptocracy). The spoils are the benefits reaped, the booty, rewards, profits etc. from for instance extortion, political patronage and corruption.
What do we mean by:
Sporadic corruption
Sporadic corruption is the opposite of systemic corruption. Sporadic corruption occurs irregularly and therefore it does not threaten the mechanisms of control nor the economy as such. It is not crippling, but it can seriously undermine morale and sap the economy of resources.
What do we mean by:
State capture
State Capture refers to the capacity of firms to shape and affect the formation of the basic rules of the game (i.e., laws, regulations, and decrees), through undue influence like private payments to public officials and politicians. The traditional image of corruption is the bureaucrat extorting bribes from powerless individuals and firms, or a state extracting rents from the economy for the benefit of politicians and bureaucrats (for instance kleptocracy). Alternatively, if interests outside of the state -private business interests in particular, and mafias- are the stronger party and able to shape the laws, policies, and regulations to their advantage, we are talking about state capture. This has been recognised as a most destructive and intractable corruption problem, above all in transition economies with incomplete or distorted processes of democratic consolidation and insecure property rights.
What do we mean by:
Systemic corruption
As opposed to exploiting occasional opportunities, endemic
or systemic corruption is when corruption is an integrated
and essential aspect of the economic, social and political system,
when it is embedded in a wider situation that helps sustain it. Systemic
corruption is not a special category of corrupt practice, but rather
a situation in which the major institutions and processes of the state
are routinely dominated and used by corrupt individuals and groups,
and in which most people have no alternatives to dealing with corrupt
officials. Examples might include contemporary Bangladesh, Nigeria,
Kenya, Cameroon and many others.
Reference:
Michael Johnston: Fighting
Systemic Corruption: Social Foundations for Institutional Reform.
What do we mean by:
Transparency
Transparency means clearness, honesty, and openness. Transparency is the principle that those affected by administrative decisions should be informed, and the duty of civil servants, managers and trustees to act visibly, predictably and understandably. Transparency thus encompasses access, relevance, quality and reliability, and describes the increased flow of timely and reliable economic, social, and political information (for example about private investors' use of loans and the creditworthiness of borrowers, about government service provision, monetary and fiscal policy, and about the activities of international institutions). Transparency enables institutions -and the public- to make informed political decisions, it improves the accountability of governments, and reduces the scope for corruption. Transparency is also essential to the economy: it improves resource allocation, enhances efficiency and increases growth prospects.
What do we mean by:
Whistleblower protection
Successful law enforcement and anti-corruption strategies are largely dependent upon the willingness of individuals to provide information and/or to give evidence. Whistleblowers are those people who dare inform the public or the authorities of corrupt transactions that they have knowledge about. But these people will need protection from those exposed. Witness protection is about the safety of the witness, but experience shows that individuals will have to have confidence that the State will protect their rights as well as their safety.
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FAQ's |
| MEASURING CORRUPTION |
 UNDP (2008)
Uses and Abuses of Governance Indicators This study (available for purchase from OECD) seeks to clarify current trends in the use and misuse of governance indicators as these indicators are applied to developing countries. It includes an in-depth analysis of the most carefully constructed and widely-used governance indicators, those produced by Daniel Kaufmann and his team at the World Bank Institute. The paper argues that composite perceptions-based indicators lack transparency and comparability over time, suffer from selection bias, and are not weel suited to help developing countries identify how effectively to improve the quality of local governance. Fact-based indicators are not necessarily more objective. The authors argue that governance indicators should be based on publicly-available data sets derived from facts, experiences and/or perceptions of diverse, clearly-defined population groups both within and outside the country in question This paper assesses corruption levels and trends among countries in the transition countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. One interesting finding was the lack of correlation between corruption in public procurement reported by firms and broader, perception-based indicators. In addition to an analysis of corruption measurement in the region, the author usefully includes a general "primer on corruption indicators" which outlines definitional and methodological differences between data sources. Composite indices are conceptually less precise than single sources. A major problems is that many give more weight to sources that correlate highly with each other. In the case of expert surveys, high correlation is a natural result of the fact that "experts" read the same analyses as well as each others' rankings. The author argues for broader use of firm, household and public official surveys to identify more specific corruption problems for programming purposes. |