Corruption in Uganda: A Comparative Study of Citizens’ and Public Officials’ Perceptions

The findings of this study into the complex problem of corruption in Uganda dispel the pervasive and popular view that corruption in East Africa’s third largest economy is an exclusive behavior monopolized by public officials. This study finds that corruption is engendered by an unholy alliance between citizens desperate to access services and public officials eager to exact a price on services they are obliged to freely provide. This study determined that corruption in Uganda largely depends upon collaboration by citizens and public officials, hence changing the simplest meaning of corruption from the abuse of public office to an act that benefits the community. Using the Institutional Analysis and Development framework (IAD), the primary purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to examine to what extent citizens and public officials differed in levels of their perception of corruption and the degree of the forms of corruption in Uganda. Using a survey of 12,000 citizens and 670 public officials, we found that citizens and public officials were slightly different in their perception of corruption, but corruption is a collaborative endeavor involving many behaviors that are discussed in detail. Key recommendations are to adopt technological inter-faces, reduce work incentives, and subject potential candidates to prove suitability before working in public service. Future research agendas are also discussed

PENGARUH KUALITAS SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTION TERHADAP TINGKAT KORUPSI YANG DIMODERASI OLEH TIPE HUKUM NEGARA : Kajian Lintas Negara

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji secara empiris pengaruh kualitas Supreme Audit Institution terhadap tingkat korupsi, kemudian untuk menguji apakah variabel tipe hukum negara dapat memoderasi hubungan di antara keduanya. Tingkat korupsi diproksikan dengan Indeks Persepsi Korupsi. Kualitas SAI diukur menggunakan skor indeks SAI dari IBP, sedangkan variabel tipe hukum berbentuk dikotomi (dummy) dengan dua kategori yaitu civil law dan common law. Sampel dalam penelitian ini adalah 55 negara yang dihasilkan menggunakan purposive sampling dengan 152 observasi. Penelitian ini menggunakan alat analisis Moderated Multiple Regression dengan bantuan aplikasi “PROCESS” untuk SPSS dari Andrew F. Hayes v3.3. Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa model regresi menjelaskan variabel dependen dengan nilai R2 sebesar 40,8%. Sedangkan, kualitas SAI berpengaruh positif terhadap indeks persepsi korupsi dengan nilai R2 sebesar 26%, dan tipe hukum negara dapat memoderasi pengaruh kualitas SAI terhadap indeks persepsi korupsi dengan nilai R2 change hanya sebesar 0,9%.;--This study aims to empirically examine the effect of the quality of the Supreme Audit Institution on the level of corruption, then to examine whether variable of state legal types can moderate the relationship between the two. The level of corruption is proxied by the Corruption Perception Index. SAI quality is measured using the SAI index score from IBP, while the legal type variable is in the form of a dichotomy variable with two categories, civil law and common law. The sample in this study were 55 countries produced using purposive sampling with 152 observations. This study uses Moderated Multiple Regression analysis with the help of the application "PROCESS" for SPSS from Andrew F. Hayes v3.3. The results of this study indicate that the regression model explains the dependent variable with an R2 of 40.8%. Meanwhile, the quality of the SAI has a positive effect on the corruption perception index with an R2 of 26%, and the legal types can moderate the effect of the quality of the SAI on the corruption perception index with an R2 change value of only 0.9%

Islands of Good Government: Explaining Successful Corruption Control in Two Spanish Cities

Between 2012 and 2018, Spanish public opinion has been shaken by a seemingly endless series of corruption scandals, to the point that corruption has become one of the main long-term concerns of the Spanish population, according to nation-wide surveys. Despite the sharp rise in corruption scandals within local authorities, there are Spanish cities that have managed to limit corruption and build a transparent and efficient government, which stand out as islands of integrity and good governance. This article qualitatively investigates two cities in Spain—Alcobendas and Sant Cugat del Vallès—which, despite being in a region with comparatively lower quality of government, have managed to successfully control corruption. We argue that the key to success is the administrative reorganization prompted by the appointment of city managers that institutionalized professional management. Findings also have implications for practitioners, meaning that complex anti-corruption legislative frameworks will not work within an overburdened administration unless the administrative structure is reformed

Bidirectional associations between descriptive and injunctive norms

Modern research on social norms makes an important distinction between descriptive norms (how people commonly behave) and injunctive norms (what one is morally obligated to do). Here we propose that this distinction is far from clear in the cognition of social norms. In a first study, using the implicit association test, the concepts of ‘‘common’’ and ‘‘moral’’ were found to be strongly associated. Some implications of this automatic common–moral association were investigated in a subsequent series of experiments: Our participants tended to make explicit inferences from descriptive norms to injunctive norms and vice versa; they tended to mix up descriptive and injunctive concepts in recall tasks; and frequency information influenced participants’ own moral judgments. We conclude by discussing how the common–moral association could play a role in the dynamics of social norms

The historical origins of corruption in the developing world: a comparative analysis of East Asia

A new approach has emerged in the literature on corruption in the developing world that breaks with the assumption that corruption is driven by individualistic self-interest and, instead, conceptualizes corruption as an informal system of norms and practices. While this emerging neo-institutionalist approach has done much to further our understanding of corruption in the developing world, one key question has received relatively little attention: how do we explain differences in the institutionalization of corruption between developing countries? The paper here addresses this question through a systematic comparison of seven developing and newly industrialized countries in East Asia. The argument that emerges through this analysis is that historical sequencing mattered: countries in which the "political marketplace" had gone through a process of concentration before universal suffrage was introduced are now marked by less harmful types of corruption than countries where mass voting rights where rolled out in a context of fragmented political marketplaces. The paper concludes by demonstrating that this argument can be generalized to the developing world as a whole

Changing the Conversation, Why We Need to Reframe Corruption as a Public Health Issue; Comment on “We Need to Talk About Corruption in Health Systems”

There has been slow progress with finding practical solutions to health systems corruption, a topic that has long languished in policy-makers “too difficult tray.” Efforts to achieve universal health coverage (UHC) provide a new imperative for addressing the long-standing problem of corruption in health systems making fighting corruption at all levels and in all its forms a priority. In response, health system corruption should be classified as a risk to public health and addressed by adopting a public health approach. Taking a public health approach to health systems corruption could promote a new paradigm for working on health system anti-corruption efforts. A public health approach could increase the space for policy dialogue about corruption, focus work to address corruption on prevention, help generate and disseminate evidence about effective interventions strategies, and because of its focus on multisectoral action would provide new opportunities for promoting cooperation on anti-corruption work across multiple agencies and sectors. Using a public health approach to tackle health system corruption could help address the current inertia around the topic and create a new positive mindset among policy-makers who would come to see corruption as a manageable public health problem rather than an intractable one

Proposing the LEGS framework to complement the WHO building blocks for strengthening health systems: One needs a LEG to run an ethical, resilient system for implementing health rights

The aim of this paper is to present a new framework to design and run a responsive and resilient health system. It can be used by both private and public, profit and non-profit organizations in order to translate strategic goals of an organization into desirable and intended best practice, and results. This includes the health sector. The framework is based on the four pillars of leadership, ethics, governance and systems, hence called LEGS framework. It can complement the six World Health Organization building blocks that guide inputs to help a health system achieve the intended goals. Despite all the strengths of the World Health Organization building blocks for health systems strengthening, it is important to highlight a few challenges: Ethics is assumed but is not explicitly stated as part of any building block. Furthermore, the World Health Organization framework lacks the flexibility to accommodate other important factors which may differ in various settings and contexts. Hence, the World Health Organization building blocks are either difficult to apply or insufficient in certain contexts, especially in countries with rampant corruption, weak rule of law and systems. This paper explores areas to strengthen the existing framework so as to achieve the intended results efficiently in different contexts. The authors propose LEGS (Leadership, Ethics, Governance and Systems Framework). This framework is very flexible, simple to use, easy to remember, accommodates the existing six WHO building blocks and can better guide different health systems and actors to achieve intended goals by taking into consideration the contextual factors like deficits in moral capital, rule of law or socioeconomic determinants of health

Korupsi Dana Desa Dalam Perspektif Principal-Agent

Studi ini berjudul “Korupsi Dana Desa Dalam Perspektif Principal-Agent”. Dilatari oleh munculnya fenomena local elit capture yang semakin menciderai kepercayaan publik terhadap penyelenggaran pemerintah pada aras lokal Desa. Menggunakan pendekatan principal-agent sebagai pisau teoretik dalam memaknai korupsi pada aras lokal Desa. Menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif untuk meneropong fenomena sosial yang diteliti dalam membaca dan menganalisis setiap data yang ditemukan. Penelitian ini menghasilkan temuan. Pertama, korupsi sebagai akibat asimetri informasi diantara principal dan agent. Kekuasaan atas informasi dimanfaatkan oleh elit lokal untuk mengkapitalisasi proses pembangunan. Kedua, korupsi terjadi karena ketiadaan mekanisme pengawasan publik pada aras lokal