Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index Research Articles

Nexus Between Democracy, Corruption, and Income Inequality in South Asia

This study explores the interplay between corruption, democracy, and income inequality in South Asia, analysing data from 2012 to 2022. It incorporates variables from the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (TI-CPI), Democracy Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and measures of income inequality, in addition to other control variables relevant to political governance and economic performance. Utilising the Feasible Generalised Least Squares (FGLS) approach, the research reveals that democracy, regulatory quality, income inequality, and population growth are associated with increased corruption, while effective corruption control, rule of law, and economic growth contribute to its reduction in the region. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers on enhancing democratic structures, governance efficiency, and the rule of law to combat corruption in South Asia. JEL Classification Codes: O15, D73

Fighting corruption in West Africa: a comparative assessment of learners and laggards

Corruption is a widespread issue that plagues societies across the globe. It is imperative to address this problem to safeguard human rights and promote sustainable development. By encouraging transparent and responsible governance, we can strengthen democracy and foster a culture of integrity among public officials and civil servants. Since its establishment in 1994, the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) has garnered international attention for its commitment to peace efforts and anti-corruption initiatives. Over the past decade, it has become a hub of public and private sector corruption scandals, mainly due to its declining performance on the Corruption Perception Index. This paper aims to evaluate the progress of some West African nations, specifically Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso, in their battle against corruption. The study will compare their performance and anti-corruption policies implemented in recent years to determine which countries are progressing and which are lagging. This study employed a mixed methods approach, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The primary objective was to evaluate various countries' capacity to combat corruption. Data was sourced from the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index and the World Governance Indicator to accomplish this. The gathered information was then classified and assessed using a comparative research design and strategy. By conducting time series analysis, the study aimed to identify commonalities and variations between the countries and draw insightful conclusions. The data will be presented graphically to exhibit trends, which this report will explore further. The paper compares the efforts of different West African countries in fighting corruption. It highlights the countries making significant strides in combating corruption and the laggards falling behind in their efforts. This assessment promotes transparency, accountability, and good governance in West Africa.

Nexus between corruption, market capitalization, exports, FDI, and country’s wealth: A pre-global financial crisis study

The study investigates the impact of corruption, market capitalization, exports, and foreign direct investment on the wealth of 178 countries worldwide. Thus, the paper uses univariate and multivariate regressions to observe the nexus among exports, foreign direct investment, market capitalization, corruption, and wealth of nations. The findings indicate that corruption poses a significant hindrance to prosperity and development, as evaluated with respect to the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Additionally, the results showed that the world’s poorest nations are becoming less corrupt while the wealthiest ones are growing more corrupt. The paper also concludes that exports and market capitalization are critical for prosperity and development when combined with lower corruption levels. Furthermore, the analysis also suggests that inbound foreign direct investment favors the development of emerging countries. Surprisingly, market capitalization and exports had little impact on wealth of countries before the crisis period. Moreover, integrity also fosters economic growth. Overall, the study concludes that the causes of wealth are country-specific. AcknowledgmentsI thank the editor and the reviewers for the helpful comments and suggestions that significantly enhanced this work. The usual disclaimer applies.

Arresting Roadside Corruption: What Prospects Remain for Anglophone Cameroon

Introduction: Corruption is a canker warm that has eaten deep into the fabrics of several communities worldwide. The phenomenon has serious consequences on investment, trade, aid, inequality, government expenditure and services, just to name a few. In Cameroon, its effects are widespread in both Private and Public sectors including the education, justice, customs, taxation, finance, administration, military and police. Based on the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, Cameroon was classified as the most corrupt country in the world in 1998 and 1999 and was ranked 149th out of 158 countries in 2020 following the implementation of several anti-corruption measures. This reveals that irrespective of the Cameroonian anti-corruption initiatives, high rates of corruption are still observed in the country. Roadside corruption is prevalent in Cameroon and is being orchestrated by both the police and other forces of the law and order. The practice is monotonous and considered a way of life by most Cameroonians. With the degeneration of the Anglophone crisis into violence, many troops of the forces of law and order have been deployed to Anglophone Cameroon to monitor and maintain security in this region.
 Purpose: To investigate the implications of the heavy presence of uniform men on roadside corruption in Anglophone Cameroon.
 Methodology: Secondary data was consulted and interviews were conducted with some road users in Bamenda.
 Findings: Respondents revealed that roadside corruption was a major problem and that the uniform men took advantage of the crisis situation to compel them to pay fines without collecting receipts and equally extort money from them even in situations where they presented all their valid vehicle and personal identification papers. This has made many drivers to care less about the regularization of theira papers.
 Unique Contribution to Practice and Policy: There is need to galvanize NGOs and civil societies to organize training programs and sensitization campaigns to inform road users on all vehicle documents, accessories, high way code and all the fines and procedures associated with defaults. The government should regulate and monitor the activities of patrol teams deployed in times of crisis and create several hotlines through which road users can call to report cases of road side corruption. Also, road users should be encouraged to regularize themselves with all necessary documents as requested by state regulations and to understand the high way code and all the procedures associated with the payment of fines in case of defaults.

Internal audit as an antecedent of economic growth

PurposeThis paper reports a study that examines the role of the internal audit function as a cornerstone of corporate governance, on economic growth.Design/methodology/approachData were obtained from 108 countries for the period 2011–2015. The World Bank, the Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation and the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index were the data sources. Two statistical techniques were used: regression analysis to test the study hypotheses and the Chi-squared test to determine whether variations between countries.FindingsThe findings suggest that conformance with internal audit standards and maturity (in years) of the internal audit department contribute to economic growth. They also reveal a relationship between the professional standing of internal audit staff (represented by professional qualifications and number of training hours annually) and the contribution to economic growth, that being that the greater the professional standing of staff, the greater internal audit conformance to the standards and the higher the contribution to economic growth. Further, the findings reveal that the impact of internal audit on economic growth varies among countries according to income classifications.Originality/valueThe consideration of internal audit as one of the four fundamental bases of corporate governance, and therefore, its relationship with economic growth is a neglected topic in the research arena. This study addresses that shortcoming by providing worldwide evidence on the contribution of internal audit to economic growth and, thus, makes a new contribution to the literature. Further, evidence is provided to enlighten poorly performing economies of the value of mandating the presence of internal audit and the compliance of it with international internal audit standards.

Reversed Proof as an Effort to Optimize the Handling of Corruption in Indonesia

Corruption occurs along with the development of the increasingly common era, which demands law enforcement and the legal justice system in Indonesia to make an effort in optimizing the handling of corruption by focusing on the evidence system. Singapore represents one of the countries that has implemented a reverse proof system. According to the Singapore 2019 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (TI-CPI), the third position with the lowest level of corruption. Therefore Singapore's achievements will help to measure the efforts to optimize the handling and prevention of fraud in Indonesia. Through a literature study that compares the reversal proof system in the country of Singapore by using deductive logic to draw general matters for research results.

Obesity of politicians and corruption in post‐Soviet countries

AbstractWe collected 299 frontal face images of 2017 cabinet ministers from 15 post‐Soviet states (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan). For each image, the minister's body‐mass index is estimated using a computer vision algorithm. The median estimated body‐mass index of cabinet ministers is highly correlated with conventional measures of corruption (Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, World Bank worldwide governance indicator Control of Corruption, Index of Public Integrity). This result suggests that physical characteristics of politicians such as their body‐mass index can be used as proxy variables for political corruption when the latter are not available, for instance at a very local level.

Corruption perception, institutional quality and performance of listed companies in Nigeria

We examine the effect of corruption perception and institutional quality on the performance of firms based on the extracted data for 135 listed companies in Nigeria with timeframe 2013–2017. We first use the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index for the baseline analysis, which evaluates the public officials and politicians’ corruption practices. To capture institutional quality, which depicts the level of law enforcement to curb corruptive practices of the public officials, we use the first component via Principle Component Analysis of six governance indicators extracted from World Bank Governance Indicators. We then use the Generalized Method of Moment (GMM) for the analysis. We find that corruption is negatively related to the market value (TobinQ) and accounting value performance (ROA). Similarly, institutional quality is negatively related to TobinQ and ROA. The results suggest that corruption and institutional quality weaken the market and accounting performance firms in Nigeria. We further compare the extent of corruption and institutional quality on performance between financial and non-financial institution. We find that both corruption and weak institutional environment tend to impair the market and accounting-based performance of non-financial firms, which could be traced to the less regulatory body in such institution compared to the financial institution. We suggest that Nigeria needs more effective and strong mechanisms proactive to curb corruption practices and weak institutional quality.

The Relation Between Tobacco Tax Structure and Corruption in European Union Member States.

Background: Taxing tobacco products is one of the most effective tobacco control measures, and most countries apply a combination of specific taxes, which comprise a fixed amount per cigarette or gram of hand-rolling tobacco, and ad valorem taxes, which increase in proportion to the cost of the product. Since specific taxes reduce price differentials across tobacco product ranges while ad valorem taxes amplify them, we hypothesised that tobacco companies seeking to minimise the effect of tax increases on sales across a range of products will tend to favour, and hence lobby for, ad valorem rather than specific taxes; and that relatively corrupt governments would be more susceptible to such lobbying and hence, more likely to favour ad valorem taxes. Methods: We searched for cigarette tax data and Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) scores for current 28 EU Member States for the years 1995 to 2017/8. Trends in cigarette tax levels and the ratio of ad valorem to specific taxes at a national and mean EU level were analysed by visual inspection, the within-country relation between the ad valorem to specific tax ratio and CPI scores over time by time-series regression analysis, and at EU level, for which complete data were available from 1995 to 2017, using a multi-level regression model. Results: Within most Member States, the ad valorem to specific cigarette tax ratio declined over the study period and was not significantly associated with corruption score. However, at an aggregate EU-level, our multi-level model indicated that reduced corruption was associated with a significant increase in the ad valorem to specific cigarette tax ratio, by 0.04 (95% confidence interval: 0.003–0.077, p < 0.036) per unit increase in CPI score. Conclusions: The ratio of ad valorem to specific taxes declined in most EU Member States over the study period, with no evidence that those with higher levels of perceived corruption tended to favour ad valorem taxes.

Explaining the standard errors of corruption perception indices

This paper examines the standard errors of two popular indices of corruption perceptions: the Worldwide Governance Indicators’ Control of Corruption (WGI-CC) and Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (TI-CPI). The standard errors of these indexes stem from the degree of variation across the sources upon which these two aggregate indices are based. In general, standard errors are not associated with country characteristics; this supports the common assumption that differences across surveys are random. There are two exceptions, however. They involve the degree of media freedom in a country and the country's past corruption scores, possibly indicating the use of cognitive heuristics by the assessors who do the ratings. No evidence exists that more diverse countries have greater variation across corruption scores. In comparing the two aggregate measures, we find that the standard errors for TI-CPI are associated with country characteristics in fewer cases than are those for WGI-CC. Finally, our findings raise concerns about the applicability of the WGI-CC's use of the unobserved components model for extracting signals from noise.

A Critical Analysis of the Anti-Corruption Policy of the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria

Purpose – This paper critically examines the anti-corruption policy of the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria, to determine whether the policy is working and/or has produced unintended effects. The Federal Executive Council is the body comprising all the Ministers of the Federation, including the President and Vice President. Design/Methodology/Approach – The analysis took the form of a desk study, which analyzed various documents and reports such as the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index 2008 -2016, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, the United Kingdom Investigatory Powers Act 2016, the Public Interest Disclosure and Witness Protection Bill, 2017 and the Financial Action Task Force Recommendations 2012. Findings – This paper determined that the anti-corruption policy of the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria could achieve its desired objectives if the following recommendations are implemented: I. Research grants which are sent to Nigerian universities by International and corporate bodies should be exempted from the current Treasury Single Account (TSA) arrangement. This would enable Universities to easily access the funds and disburse same to qualified students. II. The Federal Government should follow the guidelines laid down in Section 270 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 for plea agreements. In other words, the prosecution should only offer a plea bargain to a person who has been charged with an offence. The prosecution should not receive and consider a plea bargain from a person who has not been charged with an offence. Any attempt to water down the effect of Section 270 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 may weaken the ongoing fight against corruption and money laundering because criminals will be encouraged to continue looting public funds. The Financial Action Task Force Recommendations (Recommendation 3) requires that criminal sanctions for natural persons convicted of money laundering should be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. III. The Federal Government of Nigeria should introduce a Bill to the National Assembly that would provide a clear framework for the use of investigatory powers by law enforcement, the security and intelligence agencies and other public authorities. This includes the interception of communications, the retention and acquisition of communications data, the use of equipment interference, and the retention and use of bulk data by the security and intelligence agencies. The Bill must establish a number of safeguards against the arbitrary or unlawful use of investigatory powers by the Executive. The United Kingdom’s Investigatory Powers Act 2016, for example, established a number of safeguards for the retention and acquisition of communications data. Authorisations for obtaining communications data will have to set out why accessing the communications data in question is necessary in a specific investigation for a particular statutory purpose, and how it is proportionate to what is sought to be achieved. IV. A Police Officer who receives information from a whistleblower about money hidden in an apartment should apply to a Court or Justice of the Peace within the local limits of whose jurisdiction he is for the issue of a search warrant before conducting a search on the said premises. This procedure is in line with Section 143 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015 and the Court of Appeal decision in Hassan v. E.F.C.C. (2014) I NWLR (Pt. 1389) 607 at 625. V. The Public Interest Disclosure and Witness Protection Bill, 2017 should be given accelerated consideration in the House of Representatives based on its urgency and significance for the Federal Executive Council’s whistleblowers Policy. Research Limitations – This paper focuses on the anti-corruption policy of the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria from May 29, 2015 to June 10, 2017. It does not address the older policies. Originality/Value – This Article offers a critical analysis of the new anti-corruption policy of the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria. The paper will provide recommendations on how the policy could be strengthened. This is the only article to adopt this kind of approach.

A critical analysis of the anti-corruption policy of the federal executive council of Nigeria

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the anti-corruption policy of the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria, to determine whether the policy is working and/or has produced unintended effects. The Federal Executive Council is the body comprising all the Ministers of the Federation, including the President and Vice President.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis took the form of a desk study, which analysed various documents and reports such as the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, 2008-2016, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004, the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act, 2016, the Public Interest Disclosure and Witness Protection Bill, 2017 and the Financial Action Task Force Recommendations, 2012.FindingsThis paper determined that the anti-corruption policy of the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria could achieve its desired objectives if the following recommendations are implemented: research grants which are sent to Nigerian universities by international and corporate bodies should be exempted from the current treasury single account arrangement. This would enable universities to easily access the funds and disburse the same to qualified students. The Federal Government should follow the guidelines laid down in Section 270 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 for plea agreements. In other words, the prosecution should only offer a plea bargain to a person who has been charged with an offence. The prosecution should not receive and consider a plea bargain from a person who has not been charged with an offence. Any attempt to water down the effect of Section 270 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 may weaken the ongoing fight against corruption and money laundering because criminals will be encouraged to continue looting public funds. The Financial Action Task Force Recommendations (Recommendation 3) requires that criminal sanctions for natural persons convicted of money laundering should be effective, proportionate and dissuasive. The Federal Government of Nigeria should introduce a Bill to the National Assembly that would provide a clear framework for the use of investigatory powers by law enforcement, the security and intelligence agencies and other public authorities. This includes the interception of communications, the retention and acquisition of communications data, the use of equipment interference and the retention and use of bulk data by the security and intelligence agencies. The Bill must establish a number of safeguards against the arbitrary or unlawful use of investigatory powers by the executive. The UK’s Investigatory Powers Act, 2016, for example, established a number of safeguards for the retention and acquisition of communications data. Authorisations for obtaining communications data will have to set out why accessing the communications data in question is necessary in a specific investigation for a particular statutory purpose and how it is proportionate to what is sought to be achieved. A police officer who receives information from a whistleblower about money hidden in an apartment should apply to a Court or Justice of the Peace within the local limits of whose jurisdiction he/she is for the issue of a search warrant before conducting a search on the said premises. This procedure is in line with Section 143 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 and the Court of Appeal decision in Hassan v. E.F.C.C. (2014) I NWLR (Pt. 1389) 607 at 625. The Public Interest Disclosure and Witness Protection Bill, 2017 should be given accelerated consideration in the House of Representatives based on its urgency and significance for the Federal Executive Council’s whistleblowers policy.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper focusses on the anti-corruption policy of the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria from 29 May 2015 to 10 June 2017. It does not address the older policies.Originality/valueThis paper offers a critical analysis of the new anti-corruption policy of the Federal Executive Council of Nigeria. The paper will provide recommendations on how the policy could be strengthened. This is the only paper to adopt this kind of approach.

PROBLEMS OF UKRAINIAN MANAGEMENT AND FUNCTIONING OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEM DURING THE TRANSFORMATION PERIOD

The purpose of the article is to identify and analyze the problems of formation and formation of Ukrainian state management taking into account the historical context and consequences of implemented reforms in the economy, in particular, the analysis of the consequences of its functioning and ascertaining the reasons that led to the creation of a specific Ukrainian nomenclature bureaucracy. The material used for researching and increasing the objectivity and authenticity was selected from data that has been received and published in the official sources. To provide the analysis of trends in tendencies and risks, the authors chose the twenty years dynamics of the effectiveness indicators in the field of public administration in Ukraine according to World Bank reports (Worldwide, 2010). In order to avaluate the "shadow" economy influence, the authors included the data about its dynamics according to “Obozrevatel.ua” - 2017 (Ukraina, 2017), compared with the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) data for 2012-2017 (Corruption, 2017). The article deals with the genesis of the development of socio-economic relations in Ukraine while building up a market economy in the period of 1990-2016. It also includes the analysis of the domestic management functioning and effectiveness. It is stated that in the absence of experience concerning the functioning of state institutions and society in the market economy, the low efficiency of the management system Ukraine has failed to form a market economy system in a timely and balanced manner. There is an urgent need in the society for reforming public administration following the example of the client model of public administration, or public managerism as a democratic and open to society management system. For several decades in the absence of the necessary level of knowledge, a market economy, a critical mass of managers of the highest and middle level, a single political will regarding timeliness, direction and scope of reforms, as well as the lack of consistency and legal succession of all branches of power, the existing Ukrainian corrupt bureaucratic apparatus has failed to implement necessary socio-economic changes in Ukrainian society and ensure an appropriate trust in the authorities and support of their actions.

Assessing the validity of police integrity scale in a comparative context

ABSTRACT The current study examines the validity of the police integrity measure created by Klockars et al. (1997, The measurement of police integrity. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice. pp. 65–70; 2006, The Measurement of Police Integrity. Research in Brief. U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Institute of Justice: Washington, DC: Government Printing Office. Available from: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/181465.pdf). Whereas this theoretical and methodological approach has been used by many scholars across the world, there are no systematic assessments of its validity. We primarily investigate the criterion validity by assessing whether the data on police integrity are appropriately correlated with other independent indicators of integrity. We rely on the descriptive statistics from many prior police integrity studies conducted over the last 20 years and on other nation/state level available sources of data (Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, the International Crime Victimization Survey, the World Value Survey, and the World Governance Indicators). We find relatively robust evidence of criterion validity of the measures, although the strength of this relationship varies across criteria. The theoretical, methodological, and policy implications are discussed.

Control of Corruption and Luxury Goods Consumption

SummaryThis paper investigates the effect of control of corruption on the consumption of luxury goods, after controlling other relevant determinants of luxury spending. The model is empirically tested for 32 developed and emerging economies between 2004 and 2014. Using panel fixed effects, difference generalized method of moments (GMM) and instrumental variable estimation methods, and two measures of the control of corruption (Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index and the World Bank's Control of Corruption Index), the results show that higher levels of control of corruption decrease luxury spending. This relationship is stronger in countries with higher levels of press freedom and information transparency. These findings offer some important implications. Governments and policymakers may develop and implement regulations that increase transparency in luxury gifting and limit corruption practices. Luxury brand companies should further enhance their due diligence obligations to minimise reputational risks in the long term.

To Understand and to Misunderstand How Corruption is Measured: Academic Research and the Corruption Perception Index

The Transparency International Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is arguably the most well known of all corruption measures. When published it is headline news in half the world. Academic researchers in public administration and policy often reference or utilize the data, especially in comparative studies. Notably, data from the survey are used as an independent variable to explain policy or administrative issues in fields as different as medicine, engineering, and law enforcement. There have been many published criticisms of the methodology to construct the CPI rankings. Few note that the CPI is not itself a survey but a composite of other surveys. This article focuses on the surveys (sub-indicators) that the CPI uses and the questionable quality of their data. Further, it analyses the impact of the index on academic research and the quality of knowledge researchers have about global corruption.

Human capital development in Nigeria: an empirical assessment on the impact of corruption

Corruption has been documented as one of the most difficult hurdles in the development of institutions as it snares most developing economies in a vicious cycle of underdevelopment. More specifically is corruption within the human capital sector which is extremely detrimental to economic growth. The objective of this paper therefore is to examine the impact corruption has on human capital development. It tests the corruption - human capital nexus using multivariate regression for a period from 1996-2014. Secondary school enrolment and the Human Development Index are employed as proxies of human capital development while the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index is used as a measure of corruption. The study also controls for variables that may affect human capital development such as government expenditure on education, age dependency ratio, urbanisation and GDP per capita. The findings suggest that corruption is a major deterrent to human capital development in Nigeria when school enrolment rates are used as the dependent variable. However, corruption has no statistically significant impact on human capital development when mortality rates per 1,000 births are employed as a dependent variable. Since education is a major element through which skills and knowledge can be acquired, curbing corruption in this sector in the country is recommended so that human capital will be developed effectively in order to tackle corruption effectively in turn.

How Does Corruption Affect Public Debt? An Empirical Analysis

This paper investigates the relationship between corruption, the shadow economy, and public debt. It additionally examines whether the shadow economy increases the adverse effects of corruption on public debt. The model is empirically tested for 126 countries over 1996–2012. Using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Fixed effects, system generalized method of moments (GMM) and instrumental variable estimation, and two measures of corruption—the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index and the Kaufmann et al. Corruption Index—results confirm that increased corruption and a larger shadow economy lead to an increase in public debt. Results additionally indicate that the shadow economy magnifies the effect of corruption on public debt suggesting that they act as complements. Results also suggest that a larger shadow economy reduces tax revenues and thus increases public debt, similarly, higher government expenditure enhances the effects of corruption on government debt. Hence reducing corruption should be a primary policy goal of governments. Given the complementarity detected between corruption and the shadow economy, reducing corruption would also lead to a fall in the size of the shadow economy and public debt. Reducing corruption will also minimize the adverse effects of corruption on government debt through government expenditure.

Petro-Economy and Corruption in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and Lessons for the Future

The cases of corruption in Nigeria have increased considerably since the oil boom in 1973. The World Bank, for example, reported in 2007 that, ‘corruption is endemic in Nigeria and the bane of the country’s socio-economic development’. The Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) also ranked Nigeria in 2010 as 134 out of 178 most corrupt countries in the world. The consensus is that corruption remains one of the most urgent and persistent challenges to Nigeria’s socio-political stability with grave consequences on the sustainable development of minorities in Nigeria. The federal government rose to this challenge and established the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and related offences Commission (ICPC) to fight and conquer it, but these has not significantly addressed the situation. This paper therefore, sets out to examine the nature, determinants, manifestations and beneficiaries (collaborators / perpetrators) of petro-economy corruption, as well as measure its impacts on the national economy, governance and society. This is expected to produce new knowledge for multiple constituencies for sustainable development in Nigeria to formulate pro-active public policies. Against this background, the paper adopts the Marxist political economy theory on ‘primitive accumulation of wealth’ to explain why Nigerians indulge in petro-economy and related corrupt practices to the detriment of minority rights and applies secondary method of data collection. The study finds that there is a strong linkage between economic factors and corruption. Hence, the paper recommends measure, particularly the establishment of special courts to stamp out petro-economy corruption in Nigeria Keywords: corruption, criminal-prosecution, “Dutch disease”, excess-crude-oil” mismanagement, oil-bunkering.

Petro-Economy and Corruption in Nigeria: Issues, Challenges and Lessons for the Future

The cases of corruption in Nigeria have increased considerably since the oil boom in 1973. The World Bank, for example, reported in 2007 that, ‘corruption is endemic in Nigeria and the bane of the country’s socio-economic development’. The Transparency International (TI) Corruption Perception Index (CPI) also ranked Nigeria in 2010 as 134 out of 178 most corrupt countries in the world. The consensus is that corruption remains one of the most urgent and persistent challenges to Nigeria’s socio-political stability with grave consequences on the sustainable development of minorities in Nigeria. The federal government rose to this challenge and established the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and related offences Commission (ICPC) to fight and conquer it, but these has not significantly addressed the situation. This paper therefore, sets out to examine the nature, determinants, manifestations and beneficiaries (collaborators / perpetrators) of petro-economy corruption, as well as measure its impacts on the national economy, governance and society. This is expected to produce new knowledge for multiple constituencies for sustainable development in Nigeria to formulate pro-active public policies. Against this background, the paper adopts the Marxist political economy theory on ‘primitive accumulation of wealth’ to explain why Nigerians indulge in petro-economy and related corrupt practices to the detriment of minority rights and applies secondary method of data collection. The study finds that there is a strong linkage between economic factors and corruption. Hence, the paper recommends measure, particularly the establishment of special courts to stamp out petro-economy corruption in NigeriaKeywords: corruption, criminal-prosecution, “Dutch disease”, excess-crude-oil” mismanagement, oil-bunkering.