Bangladesh News

Governments of the countries grappling with corruption must take initiatives to change institutional culture and work with domestic and international allies to fight systemic corruption, said an internationally renowned expert on global corruption and reform.

“If we want to reduce systemic corruption, we need to change the corrupt institutional culture,” said Prof Robert Klitgaard, the expert, at the 5-day anti-corruption conference sponsored by the UN at Bali International Convention Centre in Nusa Dua yesterday.

While delivering a lecture on ‘Holistic Approach to Eradicating Corruption’, he said leaders of the countries struggling with corruption should try to mobilise domestic and international allies as well as resources to fight it.

“We have to adopt a holistic approach and think in terms of corrupt systems instead of corrupt individuals,” he said.

The culture of corruption sees ‘big fish swims freely’ and the powerful enjoys impunity. Successful leaders change this idea through impressive actions, not just words, said Klitgaard, also the president of Claremont Graduate University in California, USA, who has advised many governments on economic strategy and institutional reforms in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Klitgaard said the first step toward changing institutional culture is to ‘fry the big fish’ while the second principle is to ‘pick low-hanging fruits’ to create short-term successes which are visible and change public expectations.

The third step is to work with the people of existing institutions and bringing in new blood to pursue reform programmes, he said.

Citing the example of Bolivian politician and former mayor of La Paz Ronald Maclean-Abaroa who urged the young people to be ‘the eyes and ears’ of anti-corruption efforts, he said the allies in fighting corruption include business community and civil society members who would provide information about where corruption occurs and how corrupt systems work.

He said a better system is required for a long term to combat corruption by reducing monopoly, clarifying discretion and increasing transparency.

With regard to ethics and morality in fighting corruption, Klitgaard said, “In the success stories I have studied, moral initiatives are not the crux of long-term reform”.

The key to fighting corruption is a better system which provides imperfect human beings with better incentives for working in public interest avoiding corruption, he said adding that corruption is a crime of economic calculation, not passion.

“Morality matters. But given the level of public morality, the scale of corruption depends on economic calculation by the parties involved in corruption,” he added.