{UAH} WHAT IS CORRUPTION?

In Uganda, the different corrupt acts are well-defined under Section 2 of the Inspectorate of Government Act 2002, [IGA] which defines corruption as: "the abuse of public office for private gain and includes but is not limited to embezzlement, bribery, nepotism, influence peddling, theft of public funds or assets, fraud, forgery, causing financial or property loss and false accounting in public affairs."

According to Karen Katz (2011), corruption is understood to be the exploitation of a position of trust, typically in the public sector, in order to receive a private gain, which may or may not be financial; the most common type of corruption is bribery.

✔Grand corruption – theft or misuse of vast amount of public funds by a relatively small number of officials (Huther & Shal, 2000).

✔In Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government (2000) Justice Souter of the US Supreme Court used these words to describe corruption:

"Corruption is a subversion of the political process. Elected officials are influenced to act contrary to their obligations of office by the prospect of financial gain to themselves or infusions of money into their campaign." 

✔Rooted in the weakness of public institutions and exacerbated by poverty, corruption is the exploitation by public officials of their power in delivering public goods and services for private payoffs (Heidenheimer and Johnston, 2002). 

✔Corruption means the abuse of public power for private benefits (Transparency International, 1997).

✔Corruption was also defined as a vicious and fraudulent intention to evade the prohibitions of the law; and the act of an official or fiduciary person who unlawfully and wrongfully uses his station or character to procure some benefit for himself or for another person, contrary to duty and the rights of others.

✔Corruption is a term with many meanings but it involves misusing one's public office for a private gain or unofficial end. It entails both a financial and non-financial benefit. Influence peddling, nepotism, fraud, grease money, kick-backs, bribery and extortion readily spring to the mind of a corrupt official. 

✔Corruption often results from patronage and is associated with bribery.

✔Corruption – lack of integrity or honesty (especially susceptibility to bribery); use of a position of trust for dishonest gain.

✔Corruption may encompass a variety of wrongful acts, such as, among others, kicks, judicial tampering and abuse of public office.

✔Corruption means inducement (as of a public official) by improper means (as bribery) to violate duty (as by committing a felony). Corruption may refer to destroying someone's (or some group's) honesty or loyalty. 

✔Corruption may be explained as decay of a matter (as by rot). Corruptionist is an altered form of the word corruption. Corruptness among public officials.

✔The most obvious effect of political corruption is a loss of public esteem for politicians and political life. The cynical view that 'politics is a dirty business' becomes a reality – people enter politics not from the sense of public service but in pursuit of personal power and advancement. They put their personal interests above the interests of the people who elected them in office. If left unchecked, corruption weakens the very structures of an organised society as it undermines the forces of law and order, and reduces the public morale. In the long run, both economic and political developments become crippled. 

✔The impact on business and the wider society is even greater as it diverts resources from productive to unproductive sectors, and makes a few excessively rich as the expense of an impoverished majority population. Corruption also undermines institutions and redistributes wealth to the undeserving. 

✔This disease of corruption increases risks and costs to business, damages investor confidence and stifles economic growth. Corrupt acts are a strong deterrent to direct foreign investment.

According to research conduct corruption in public administration originates from elected or appointed public leaders and trickles down. Corruption was derived from a Latin word 'corrumpere' which means to break something and during the action of corruption, the law, the legal rule, a moral norm and in worse situations communities and human personalities are broken. Corruption is equated to cancer which strikes almost all parts of the society; as it eats the cultural, political and economic fabric of society and destroys the functioning of vital organs (Amundsen, 1999).

--
H.OGWAPITI
-----------------------------------------------------
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that  we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic  and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt

--
UAH forum is devoted to matters of interest to Ugandans. Individuals are responsible for whatever they post on this forum.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.