Retail Corruption in Public Services for Citizens

Sameer Sharma, PhDJanuary 15, 2014 (CoCo)

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Corruption typesS. No Type of

corruptionNature Examples

1. Retail Widespread, small amounts, Individual oriented, unfair

Service provision

2. Wholesale Indirect contact with citizens, Group driven along verticals, conflict of interest

Supply of products

3. Organized Gaming (Rule-Making – using influence) and cronyism (Rule-Following – using compliance), conflict of interest

Procurement

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The three types intersect, too

Retail

OrganizedWholesale

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Some solutions

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Solution 1 – the standard way

• Increase risk of getting caught and impose more draconian penalties. Use standard tools such as,– efficient and neutral investigative agencies, – special courts, and – combine investigation and prosecution in one agency

were used by different governments. • However, due to the operation of the law of

decreasing marginal gains and increasing costs, delinquents are likely to be less deterred by the increased penalties.

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Solution 2 – absolute integrity

• Pursue absolute integrity.• However, this becomes increasingly expensive

because law enforcement requires quick justice, is costly to carry out, over time administrative procedures become more complex and the intrinsic motivation of bureaucracy to perform may decline.

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Solution 3 – counter game playing

• Game playing by public officials. Some components of the counter game playing are,– encourage betrayal among corrupt parties, – destabilize corrupt agreements, – disallow contracts to be legally enforced, – hinder the operations of corrupt middlemen and to find ways to

regulate conflicts of interest. • Here, government officials are not simply the pawns of the

growth machine interests; in fact, they have the opportunity to use independent power and act against purely economic interests.

• However, requires great ethical standards.

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Solution 4 – democratic administration

• Establish “democratic administration”– Population, at several levels, benefiting from the

service or bearing its costs should not only pay for it, but also control and monitor its provision.

– Citizens will take interest in administration because their preferences and demands count. Greater citizen scrutiny will enhance efficiency and integrity of government operations; therefore, reduce corruption.

• However, institutional capture may occur and one more “mouth” may be created.

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RETAIL CORRUPTION – LEARNINGS FROM PRACTICE

• Contextualized and rooted in the social, political and cultural orders because nearly all theories were formulated in the west and so too the conceptual categories.

• The process of reconceptualization involves – deconstruction of paradigms, concepts and principles and their reconstruction.

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The retail model

• Consists of one overarching theme - auto-regulation (minimum requirement of constant hierarchical oversight), and

• three specific themes – – Reintermediation (best is complete

disintermediation),– using the mobile phone camera to bring about

process and output accountability, and – flipping of processes.