Causes of Corruption |10 Main Reasons which can be Eradicated

Corruption is one of the biggest threats to the well-being of society.

Corruption degrades the quality of the services and also ruins the life of the common person. Many countries in the world are affected by this problem called corruption.

Political parties who promised to stop and take steps to eradicate corruption have been voted for power. This shows the significance of a corruption-free society and government.

Unlike developed countries, corruption is at a high rate in developing countries. The causes of corruption are many and quite complex that the promises of the political parties to eradicate corruption are not easy.

Corruption is primarily seen in jobs, businesses, promotions, election campaigns, sports, etc. Below is the list of

 Main Causes of Corruption

1. Low Pay scales/ Wages

Most of the employees in the government sector are paid low wages and salaries. Hence some employees revert to corruption for more financial benefits.

2. Low Job opportunities.

This is another cause of corruption. Due to the lack of job opportunities, many people like to go for corruption mode to get a job offer. They will be ready to pay lump-sum amounts for the job offer to the higher officials or politicians.

3. Lack of Strict and fast punishments:

Even if someone is found guilty or even caught red-handed by the anti-corruption officials or media, the convicts get less punishment. First, they will be suspended for a few months or weeks and then re-posted to another location with the same Job grade and pay. So this means the official who did the corrupt practice is given a free license to continue his practice.

If the government is so strict that any such corrupt incidents will lead to permanent removal from the job and also punishment like several years imprisonment, then the corruption will come down to a large extent.

4. Lack of fear of bad reputation

If a person is corrupt or has done some unacceptable misconduct, they have to be avoided and not be respected. But currently, those with corruption and other offense-related history are given prominent positions like members of parliament or even higher posts. Instead of being disrespected, they are respected.

5. Lack of Public Unity

The public openly criticizes corruption, but interestingly there is no unity among the public to stop corruption. If a person wants to get his done his work, he gets it done by corruption means if possible and then later criticizes the corrupt official. If the public stands united against corruption so that no one is ready to offer bribes to get their work done, then the corrupt officials will have no other option but to work in a corruption-free manner.

During the election, politicians try to lure the people by offering money and other things. If these politicians win and get power, they try to regain 10 to 100 times the amount spent in the process.

6. Lack of transparency in affairs and deals

Many seat selection processes like in education, contracts for the job, employee income reports (wealth possession), etc., lack transparency.

7. Lack of Independent detective agency

Lack of an independent detective agency to investigate with full power and freedom to expose the corrupt individuals. The existing agencies are under the control of either the government or the armies and are not free to work. Hence anyone who commits offense will not be afraid of the investigation as they can escape from it by taking the help of those controlling them.

8. Lack of state funding for elections

State funding for polls is the best way to beat corruption. Political parties receive party donations and will not disclose them to the fullest. In doing so, they encourage corruption.

They collect massive amounts from industrialists with a promise to help when in power. The presence of state funding can abolish party donations and minimize corruption.

9. The option of many political parties

In a democracy, anyone can establish a political party. So there are chances for the corruption of many political parties in the country.

If a political party wins, then the party members will desire to expand the party all over the country. To do so, they need enough financial reserves. Once they come into power, they opt for corrupt means to make the wealth needed to expand the party.

10. Lack of enough powers to the judicial system and other independent organizations.  Like the election commission cannot ban a politician from contesting in case they make a mistake or do not comply with the rules during the poll campaign (like distributing money to people etc.). Similarly, the judicial system has low options to punish someone who is found to be

11. Lack of accountability

In government, there is a big trend in corruption. This is because of a lack of accountability. The employees in government offices do not perform to their par excellence. If they have 100 files to be cleared in a week, they may not even clear 50 of them in that week. They tend to postpone the clearance of the files. So those who are in the urgency of the clearance have to get them done by rewarding the officials involved in the clearance office. This lack of accountability in government offices is the chief cause of corruption.

If there is a mandate that all the files or at least 95% of files received by government offices for clearance are cleared in the said period, then corruption can be minimized to a large extent.

12. Encouragement of unhealthy competition

Competition in business is a good sign for the quality of service to be delivered. But in developing nations, there is an encouragement of unhealthy competition.

When there is a tender, you can notice that only a few companies bid for it. This is because the companies having political relations have higher chances of winning while others do not. So, companies with no political influence will not bid for the tender in-spite of being a good company. That is where the number of bidders for a tender will be low due to political interference.

These causes of corruption have to be eliminated for the better growth of the nation.