Public Office Holders Research Articles

Evaluation of Public Sector Corruption and Organized Crimes as Impediments to Nigeria’s Economic Growth

This research work on the evaluation of public sector corruption and organized crime as an impediment to Nigeria’s economic growth attempts to examine the link between crime and growth based on the theory of rational choice and empirical data.the major objective of this research is to evaluate the extent to which public sector corruption and organized crime impacted on economic growth in Nigeria. The Dynamic Endogenous Growth model is adopted to analyse the data collected as the study sought to cast further light on the macroeconomic implications of organized crime and its interaction with corruption. The study concludes that to eradicate organized crime and corruption in Nigeria, effort should be geared towards a fool-proof, digitized intelligence gathering on identifying the roots causes and a way to nip them in the bud. All leakages in the public sector also need to be blocked to curtail loopholes for corruption to thrive It is recommended that prosecution be forcefully pursued through the enactment of an accountability legislation for public office holders and the enhancement of police and court system skills through sufficient funding.Furthermore, the government ought to take action to promote a more productive economy, which would lower unemployment and serve as a deterrent to crime.

The problem of the legal status of persons replacing public offices of the subjects of the Russian Federation

The article describes a comprehensive study of the problem of the legal status of persons replacing public offices of the subjects of the Russian Federation. The gaps in the legal regulation of the status of persons replacing public office holders at the regional level are identified. Attention is drawn to the lack of unified federal requirements both when appointing persons and when they carry out their activities. The necessity of development of a unified legal mechanism at the federal level is established.

Combating Corruption in Nigeria: A Case Study of Public Prosecution under Buhari’s Administration (2015-2023)

The menace of corruption in Nigeria has lingered on for years, the conscious awareness towards this malady has gained prominence over the years, to the extent that the main opposition party, All Progressive Congress (APC), ascended to power in the 2015 General Elections, emerging victorious at the polls with anti-corruption campaign, echoed by the change mantra. This study dissected the much-anticipated fight against corruption in the eight years of Muhammadu Buhari’s APC led administration; it unravels that the principle The menace of corruption in Nigeria has lingered on for years, the conscious awareness towards this malady has gained prominence over the years, to the extent that the main opposition party, All Progressive Congress (APC), ascended to power in the 2015 General Elections, emerging victorious at the polls with anti-corruption campaign, echoed by the change mantra. This study dissected the much-anticipated fight against corruption in the eight years of Muhammadu Buhari’s APC led administration; it unravels that the principle of rotation of power with its patron-client network and identity politics are enablers of corruption in Nigeria. Similarly, it is posited that plea bargain constitutes a huge hindrance to the successful eradication of corruption in Nigeria, just as the poor reward system for career public office holders constitutes a challenge to the fight against corruption in Nigeria. The study concluded that the Buhari administration’s fight against corruption, although had Nigerians filled with hopes from inception, could not achieve much in the end with the anti-corruption Caesar (Ibrahim Magu) removed in what appears as a power play. We recommend the establishment of institutional mechanisms to prevent corruption, review of reward system for public officers, creation of credit system to facilitate citizens’ immediate access to meeting their needs, prosecution of civil/public servants who are complicit in corrupt practices, and compensation of whistleblowers, among other measures.

We see symbols but not saviors: Women's representation and the political attitudes of working‐class women

AbstractHow does women's representation in politics affect working‐class women's attitudes toward political processes? Despite their increasing presence in the workforce, many women continue to concentrate in occupational sectors characterized by high economic vulnerability and low social status. This dynamic has important implications for the politics of representation. Previous studies suggest that women politicians positively affect women voters' political attitudes, but women's representation in politics is likely to have differing impacts on the political attitudes of working‐class and professional women. This study demonstrates that women's representation has a large class impact among women voters. In particular, using cross‐national data from 31 OECD countries as well as panel survey data from the British Election Study, we show that in countries with a higher degree of women's representation, there is more skepticism among women in low‐skill sectors toward voting and leadership than among those in white‐collar sectors. This is because there exist higher standards of accountability and relatability for women representatives among women voters. Given such high expectations, there is greater room for dissatisfaction among working‐class women than among their white‐collar counterparts when they constantly experience occupational segregation despite a high share of women in politics. In these settings, by contrast, women voters with high‐skill jobs are more likely to believe that voting and leadership matter, as they can better associate themselves with women political elites. Since men voters do not have strong expectations for relatability and accountability for public officeholders, the class impact of women's representation is weak among men. These findings have important implications for the symbolic representation of marginalized groups and democratic accountability.

Lobbying the executives: differences in lobbying patterns between elected politicians, partisan advisors and public servants

Research from parliamentary countries suggests that lobbyists tend to focus their attention on public office holders within the executive government more than those within the legislative branch. To date, however, research studying executive-lobbying relations tends to treat “the executive” and “lobbyists” as two homogenous groups. Yet importantly, not all executive personnel and lobbyists are the same. The executive is made-up of popularly elected politicians, partisan advisors and non-partisan bureaucrats, who vary in their skills, motivations, responsibilities and power within government. Differences also exist in the level of expertise and political representativeness between in-house and consultant lobbyists. Using longitudinal data between 2015 and 2022 from Canada's Lobbyist Registry, this article digs deeper into the executive-lobbying nexus by examining the number of contacts consultant and in-house lobbyists have with different executive personnel—ministers, partisan advisors, senior public servants and non-senior public servants. Although the data shows no meaningful variation tied to differences across partisan-political and administrative personnel within the executive, there is substantive variation in lobbying intensity between upper and lower ranked executive personnel; in-house lobbyists lobby senior political and senior administrative personnel twice as much as consultant lobbyists. These findings are consistent with theory on the expertise and representative function some lobbyists possess, more so than theory emphasizing differences between partisan-political and administrative personnel within the executive.

Machine Perception of Political Manifestos in Predicting Performance of Public Office Holders

Machine Perception of Political Manifestos in Predicting Performance of Public Office Holders

Effects of Tax Evasion and Avoidance on Oyo State’s Internally Generated Revenue

Tax evasion and avoidance are both phenomena that are probably as old as taxation itself. Literature revealed that tax avoidance and evasion represent some of the perplexing problems facing the Nigerian economy. The study adopts a quantitative research design, employing a standardized questionnaire as the primary research instrument. The study population comprises personnel from the Oyo State Internal Revenue Service. The findings revealed a significant positive relationship between tax evasion and IGR, indicating that tax evasion negatively impacts revenue generation. Similarly, tax avoidance is found to have a significant negative relationship with IGR, implying its detrimental effect on revenue. The study concluded that resistance towards tax obligations leads to the disturbance of the government's essential services, such as health services, education, sanitation, transportation, and infrastructure. The study recommends that urgent steps should be taken by public office holders to live up to expectation when it comes to transparency, accountability and the war against corruption.

Democratic utopianism: still searching for the truest meaning of democracy

The objects of this research are: first, to explore the concept of democracy and its different meanings. Second, to highlight the shortcomings of living in a democratic country. Third, to explore the political leverage and potential dangers posed by members of elite democracy on the masses. Fourth, to warn political leaders of the setback of relying on a system of government that is nonexistent or practiced in its truest form. The researcher investigated the following: Divergent meanings and interpretations of democracy identified some shortcomings associated with democracy and the dangers of the powerful elite who are political leaders imposed on citizens. The main results of the research: first, there is no single country in the world that can rightfully hold claim to practicing democracy in its truest form. Second, democracy is an ideal system of government we all aspired to have, and third, the elite class has manipulated democratic processes to ensure their perpetual dominance over the masses. Fourth, democracy needs to be instituted properly and effectively for the benefit of citizens. The area of practical use of the research: all citizens living in a country where democracy is practiced, political leaders, political party members, students, workers, and public office holders, employees of regional and global organizations.

Advancing Legal and Ethical Arguments against Ex-Governors’ Pension Practice in Nigeria

One of the biggest issues with public accountability in most federal systems is the payment of pensions to former public officeholders such as governors, which is arguably undermining ethical standards in the public sector and impeding socio-economic development. This is because of the arbitrariness of the policy, the huge financial burdens it imposes on subnational governments, and the fact that such practice is often uncorrelated with the fiscal realities of the federating states. The problem is more challenging in developing countries that are weighed by weak institutions and poor governance. Using the Nigerian case, the study shows how public officeholders’ pensions are shaped by corruption-prone defective legislative processes configured to birth ex post facto laws that widen rather than narrow corruption and inequalities. Adopting a descriptive exploratory research design and document analysis technique, this study offers valuable insights into addressing the ethical and legal challenges surrounding public pension administration. It advocates for adopting a standardised model for regulating and administering pensions for public officeholders in developing federal systems. By advancing legal and ethical arguments against the prevailing ex-governors’ pension practice in Nigeria, this paper contributes to the extant discourse on improving accountability and governance in the public sector.

Effects of Administrative Corruption on Democratic Governance In Nigeria

Administrative corruption has become a major issue sabotaging governance and democratic development in Third World Countries. It is a menace that respects no national boundaries. It distorts socio-political life of the people. In Nigeria, administrative corruption has eroded people’s trust in government because of the persistent increase in inefficiency and ineffective public service delivery. As revealed in the literature, administrative corruption in Nigerian public institutions has made a lot of the nation’s resources mismanaged by the public office holders despite many policy measures put in place to curtail the menace. Sequel to this phenomenon, this paper examined the effect of administrative corruption on democratic governance in Nigeria. Relying on the ex-post approach where literature was surveyed to explain the extent to which administrative corruption impedes the growth of democratic governance in the country. The paper recommends strengthening of the internal control mechanisms to detect cases of administrative corruption in public institutions. It also suggests the creation of pathways to give citizens the relevant tools to engage and participate in governance towards promoting transparency and accountability in the administration of the state.

Public Institutions, Democratic Consolidation and Sustainable Development in Nigeria: An Exploratory Discourse of Challenges

This article undertakes an exploratory analysis of the impediments and optimal approaches to building strong public institutions in Africa, with specific reference to Nigeria, through extensive literature review. Beyond clarifying concepts such as institutions and institutionalisation, the article provides a brief examination of the history of institutions building in Nigeria in order to show that the colonialists deliberately undermined institution building. The main colonial focus was on the exploitation of Africa, extraction of raw materials for the metro-poles, even during the post-independence era. The article identifies challenges to strong public institutions building in Nigeria, which include juxtaposing “weak” (otherwise wrongly styled “strong”) individuals/leaders for strong institutions, primordial issues, godfather syndrome, federal character system and jumbo pay for some public office holders. Basic elements that promote strong public institution building including availability of appropriate rules, authority-based administration, operational transparency and accountability, promotion of security, peace and order, political community, and positive political will and responsible government. Policy recommendations are: the compelling need for deliberate efforts at building strong public institutions in Africa, particularly Nigeria, as the only route to sustainable peace, security and development. Also, weak individuals/leaders should no longer be styled as strong individuals because the latter only operate within, not above institutional rules. Finally, challenges to strong institution building need to be taken care of because they constitute clogs in the wheel of progress. Keywords: Democracy,Development, Government, Institutions and Nigeria

A moral evaluation of past military coups and present corruption in Nigeria

It is altruism that military dictatorship and leadership are synonymous with corruption. It is also obvious that participation of military in national leadership through coups is a practice that is not alien to the biblical era, the world, Africa and Nigeria in particular. Nigeria as a nation like other African countries has had its share of this ugly phenomenon in the past and presently harvesting the fruits thereof. The worst legacy left behind by the military leaderships in Nigeria was corruption. The military ruled Nigeria through coups persistently and its ranks and files have by all indications proved that they too, were not immune against the problem of corruption. Using the instance of coups in the Bible and other underlying moral principles, the paper examines the phenomena of coups and corruption in Nigeria and appraised same from a moral paradigm. The secondary sources of collecting data through scholarly literature on the subject are adopted to attain the objective of the research. The paper also highlights the positive and negative impacts of coups on the Nigerian nation. It argues that corruption is a by-product of past persistent coups in the Nigerian state, and advocates for a constitutional means such as democratic elections to effect a change of power to align with current global democratic trends and avoid corrupt practices. The paper recommends that the current practice of recycling politicians and public office holders who are the same military leaders in the past should be discouraged so that corruption can be minimized in the country.

PROBLEM STOSOWANIA NIELEGALNYCH AKTÓW WYKONAWCZYCH PRZEZ ORGANY ADMINISTRACJI PUBLICZNEJ (NA PRZYKŁADZIE ROZPORZĄDZEŃ EPIDEMICZNYCH)

The paper concerns the application of illegal regulations by public administration authorities. This issue is presented in relation to regulations introduced to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The authors believe that the adoption of these regulations and their application prove that ‘the real constitution’ – as it was described by Ferdinand Lassalle – prevails over the written constitution, which in practice becomes only a ‘piece of paper’. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the epidemic regulations were enacted in clear violation of law as they: (i) crossed the limits of statutory delegation; (ii) violated the constitutional principle of the exclusivity of the statute on limiting civil rights and freedoms; and (iii) violated the constitutional prohibition against impairing the essence of rights and freedoms. Therefore, the public administration authorities should refuse their application. The authorities must observe the hierarchical rule regarding the sources of law. Consequently, they have to refuse the application of every regulation which manifestly violates a statute, a treaty or the Constitution. In cases other than a direct contradiction between the regulation and the higher-level source of law, in order to decide whether there is indeed a manifest violation, the authorities should refer to case law (consuetudo secundum legem principle) or the opinio communis of legal scholars. Moreover, applying a regulation despite the fact that it manifestly violates a statute, a treaty or the Constitution leads to the criminal liability of a public office-holder (e.g. an official, a police officer) under Article 231 of the Polish Criminal Code.

Kleptocracy and Nigerian politics: A reflection on the fourth republic

Kleptocracy scores high in weakening rule of law and undermining the development of the global south. Despite different anti-corruption measures by nation-states, political evil continuously assumes a political culture. Kleptocracy consists of embezzling and stealing public funds and resources for selfish profits (consumption and glorification). In Nigeria particularly the fourth republic, political offices have turned to channels for unchecking sources of riches to both oneself and family members. Political elites take turn engaging in siphoning, embezzling, stealing, looting, and diverting public funds which create a kind of political culture where feeding fat on the states’ treasuries become the order of the day. This significantly results in an economic mess, underdevelopment, unimaginable sufferings and a thriving environment for penuries, particularly in Nigeria. To achieve the purpose of this study, interpretivism approach was used to analyse previous literature on the meaning, features and consequences of kleptocracy in society. The incidences of embezzlement and looting of public resources of the fourth Nigerian republic were investigated. The study finds that kleptocracy is politically evil because it undermines human dignity by recreating poverty and corruption. It recommends that to eradicate the practice from Nigerian politics, honest yearly assets declarations should form a bedrock for every public officeholder.

Rent-Seeking and Criminal Politicians: Evidence from Mining Booms

AbstractWe study how natural resource rents affect the selection and behavior of holders of public office. Using global price shocks to thirty-one minerals and nationwide geological and political data from India, we show that local mineral rent shocks cause the election of politicians charged with serious crimes. We also find a moral hazard effect: politicians commit more crimes and accumulate greater wealth when mineral prices rise during their terms in office. These politicians have direct influence over mining operations but no access to fiscal windfalls from mining; we thus isolate the direct political impacts of mining sector operations.

Intra-party Balance of Power: Cartelisation versus Communist Organisational Tradition in the Cypriot Radical Left AKEL

ABSTRACT The article analyses the effects of cartelisation on the intra-party balance of power among the three ‘party faces’ of the Cypriot AKEL. Aiming to provide a testable hypothesis for other radical left parties with government experience, we investigate the claim of cartel party theory – that the party in central office and the party on the ground have lost their powers to the party in public office – in the light of AKEL’s communist organisational tradition. We ask whether this genetic heritage might have conditioned its adaptation and transformation and allowed it to resist cartelisation. Using a variety of material, including a rich set of unpublished party data, we investigate indices including the decline of the party on the ground, the composition and hierarchy of party organs, the relationship of public office holders to the party executives, and who controls the party’s finances and communication strategy. We find mixed evidence, rather pointing to the endurance of the mass party model, indicative of the strong influence that party history exercises upon AKEL’s present organisational configuration.

The Duty-of-Office Accountability and Democratic Power - Emanuela Ceva and Maria Paola Ferretti: Political Corruption: The Internal Enemy of Public Institutions. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. 232.)

Ceva and Ferretti provide rich, comprehensive, and thought-provoking answers to the question of what political corruption—understood as corruption that occurs in public institutions—is and when and why it is morally wrong. One aspect that greatly contributes to the book's originality and political relevance is its commitment to a “continuist” conception of (public) institutions (14), according to which institutions are nothing but the interrelated actions of their members—the officeholders entrusted, by virtue of their institutional role, with specific powers that they should always be able to use with a certain level of discretion. This conceptual starting point makes this book a compelling reminder that, even if designing and reforming formal institutions can be done effectively to shape the powers and incentives of institutional actors, we cannot focus only on formal institutional and procedural design to have functioning institutions. As Ceva and Ferretti argue, “no institution can be designed in such a way that makes it immune from political corruption, which may always sneak in per the officeholders’ work” (61)—namely, whenever public officeholders use their entrusted powers in a manner that is incompatible with the terms of their power mandate.

Specijalizacija nosilaca pravosudnih funkcija i svest građana kao instrumenti suprotstavljanja ekološkim kaznenim delima

Specialization, contentfull training, and continuous professional growth of prosecutors and judges in the domain of ecological crimes, joint education programs for criminal justice organs, police officers and inspectors, the increase in material and human resources, especially in the domain of inspections, are all necessary requirements for the improvement in the detection, investigation, evidence collection, and prevention of ecological crimes. In this paper, the author first analyzes the significance of the specialization of public office holders, prosecutors and judges, when it comes to ecological crimes. One of the current priorities of the EU is the struggle against ecological crime, especially certain types of ecological crime. The specialization of criminal justice office holders, especially prosecutors, is the norm in certain countries. Insufficient public awareness about the consequences of ecological crimes and the damage they cause, their victims, their "profitability", and their scope is a significant obstacle for the prevention, detection, and reduction of ecological crime. Numerous international legal documents emphasize the imperative of improving public awareness about ecological crimes. The author relates the improvement in public awareness with the right of "members of the public" to access criminal justice and the role of the "concerned public" in a criminal procedure, above all as persons filing criminal complaints, often in the form of citizen groups/associations or in relation to the participation in criminal procedures for these crimes.

Can Focusing on the Ethics of Public Office Address the Challenge of Contemporary Political Corruption? - Emanuela Ceva and Maria Paola Ferretti: Political Corruption: The Internal Enemy of Public Institutions. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. 232.)

Ceva and Ferretti have written an important book on how we should understand political corruption, which they argue entails a public official acting in their institutional capacity as an officeholder but pursuing an agenda that cannot be justified by the specific mandate of their role. Their definition, in stressing the relational nature of political corruption, underpins their argument that its wrongfulness must be understood as a breach of interactive justice and addressed from within. Only by ensuring that individual public officeholders remain accountable and mutually answerable for their conduct (because institutions are constituted by individuals who have interactive duties to their colleagues) can the threat of political corruption be meaningfully addressed. Office accountability as the core duty of officeholders, to be exercised through the practice of answerability, is crucial to developing a meaningful defense against the risk of corruption within organizations and institutions. The central argument of Ceva and Ferretti's book is both powerful and persuasive and makes a significant contribution to the literature on identifying and tackling political corruption.

Automating anticorruption?

The paper explores some normative challenges concerning the integration of Machine Learning (ML) algorithms into anticorruption in public institutions. The challenges emerge from the tensions between an approach treating ML algorithms as allies to an exclusively legalistic conception of anticorruption and an approach seeing them within an institutional ethics of office accountability. We explore two main challenges. One concerns the variable opacity of some ML algorithms, which may affect public officeholders’ capacity to account for institutional processes relying upon ML techniques. The other pinpoints the risk that automating certain institutional processes may weaken officeholders’ direct engagement to take forward-looking responsibility for the working of their institution. We discuss why both challenges matter to see how ML algorithms may enhance (and not hinder) institutional answerability practices.