Let’s collectively fight graft

In the past two decades, efforts to control corruption in the developing world grew exponentially, attracting support from all major aid agencies and development partners.

It has inspired hundreds of reform projects and action plans signed and anti-graft agencies created with a growing class of in-demand experts emerging.

Billions of dollars have been invested with little success.

Corruption causes the depletion of scarce resources. It bankrupts the state and reduces its ability to provide public services effectively and efficiently.

When corruption is seen as ‘normal’, people become less enthusiastic to abstain from it or take the first step in implementing sanctions or reforms.

That calls for less investment and more collective action advocacy. The private sector, civil society and government should work together elaborately.

Sustainability

Businesses should engage with the government in a fair and clean manner while advocating sustainability.

Collective action involves bringing together actors from different organisations and industries who share the conviction that corruption produces harmful effects in the long term, to enable them to define fair rules between competitors to which they adhere globally and individually.

It involves pooling efforts through simultaneous adoption of shared principles and standards to harmonise the rules, and complicate attempts at distorting them while guaranteeing equal market access to the greatest possible extent so that graft is eliminated.

Trust is a key ingredient. Collective action requires specific commitments from each stakeholder—not in monetary terms but in action.

Civil society should facilitate low-cost knowledge sharing, set up workable governance structures and enhance information sharing to alleviate antitrust concerns.

We just need to all come together and fight corruption, especially in this time of political transition.

Dr Omai (PhD) is an anti-corruption crusader and governance consultant. [email protected].