By resolution 58/4 of 31 October 2003, the General Assembly designated 9 December as International Anti-Corruption Day. This decision was taken in order to raise awareness of corruption and of the role of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in combating and preventing it.

The Assembly urged all States and competent regional economic integration organizations to sign and ratify the United Nations Convention against Corruption as soon as possible in order to ensure its rapid entry into force.

What is corruption?

Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for unmerited private gain. It means such conduct on the side of public sector representatives (politicians, government officials or any persons related to them), by which they - in an unlawful and illegal way - gain a profit, abusing the powers entrusted to them.
A different approach defines corruption as an offer, a promise, or a provision of any sort of unmerited advantage in exchange for a certain reward. Such reward does not necessarily have to be in monetary form (bribing); it may take a form of providing the inside information, clientelism, nepotism, neglect of duty in property management, conflict of interest, machinations in public procurement, or frauds.

The most common type of corruption is “petty corruption”, practiced by (often poorly remunerated) public officials. Yet if left unchecked, small bribes get bigger and start fuelling the corruption spiral. Petty corruption complicates everyday life while at the same time closely reflecting more serious forms of corruption at higher levels. Corruption symbiosis of political elites with powerful economic groups presents the biggest risk for democratic systems.
Negative impacts of high-level corruption include undermining of public institutions legitimacy (weakened trust in the rule of law), and the establishment of parallel, non-elected and non-democratic power structures. Ineffective allocation of public funds (resulting in the economic growth slow-down), distortion of competition, and excessive transaction costs of business activities present major economic effects. Social costs of corruption include devastation of human resources and deepening of social inequality; and corruption may also become a tool of organised crime. In the long term, high level of corruption in a given country damages its reputation abroad.

There are three corruption-related criminal offences according to the Czech Criminal Code: accepting a bribe, offering a bribe, and indirect bribing. However, there are many other “corruption practices” which are not considered crimes according to the law.

Corruption has many faces, from illegal financing of political parties to incur future favours, to a tool for organised crime which seeks to penetrate governments and law enforcement in order to protect its interests, a kickback to get a public contract or a bribe to avoid paying a fine for a traffic offence. As no country or institution is immune from corruption, responses to corruption and its effects can make the difference if efficient and tailored made to a given context.
Where there is no transparency in an organisation, i.e. where tasks and functions are conducted in secret and are not open to examination by other government officers or the public, the opportunity for corruption increases. Transparency is a prerequisite for democracy in which sovereignty is vested in the people and the conduct of civil servants must be open to examination. It is therefore vital that citizens in general and the media (radio, television, newspapers) in particular are guaranteed the right to freedom of speech; the media can inform citizens of any action by a civil servant that might be corrupt in nature and appropriate calls for action can be made. A transparent system deters corruption as the conduct of civil servants is under constant scrutiny.

In what kind of environment does corruption thrive?

Corruption can grow in a variety of political and economic environments but it thrives when bad government makes it impossible to control. While the importance of different factors can vary from place to place and from time to time, it seems that, for corruption to flourish, certain key pre-conditions are necessary:

1. A set of imperatives and incentives which encourage politicians and officials to engage in corrupt transactions, which include low and irregular salaries for officials with large dependent families. Such officials may feel compelled to become corrupt, and political instability and economic uncertainty encourages politicians to exploit current opportunities. Very few African officials can anticipate lifelong job security or a guaranteed pension.
2. The availability of multiple opportunities for personal enrichment. Some economic environments are much more conducive to corruption, in particular mineral and oil rich environments are more fertile territories than subsistence agriculture. The size and growth of public spending will help define the possibilities for corruption. Where there is extensive discretion over the allocation of economic costs and benefits.
3. Access to and control over the means of corruption. Motive and opportunity create the possibility but there have to be ways of actually engaging in corruption. These might include control over an administrative process such as tendering or having access to offshore accounts and the techniques of money laundering.
4. Limited risks of exposure and punishment. Corruption will thrive where there are inadequate and ineffective controls (both internal and external). Policing, detection and prosecution encourages corruption. Where the media are controlled and censored, corrupt politicians and officials have less to fear.

The incidence of corruption is a result of the strength of incentives, the range and scale of opportunities, the availability of means and the risks of punishment. Corruption thrives on bad governance where controls are weak and decision-making is opaque, arbitrary and lacking in accountability mechanisms.

Objectives of Transparency International:

• formation of anti-corruption attitudes and legal awareness of citizents;
• institutionalization of transparency;
• corruption prevention by ensuring the effectiveness of anti-corruption mechanisms.

Causes of Corruption

• low legal awareness of population. Besides weak compliance with laws and other regulations, absence of culture and traditions to use legal levers by citizens, there could be other effects when in particular decreased legal immunity leads to the absence of mass resistance of “lower” corruption;
• imperfection of legislation. Defects of legislation are revealed in poor quality of laws and in imperfection of the whole legal system, in unclearness of lawmaking procedures and existence of norms establishing additional opportunities for corruption;
• economic decay and political instability. Inequality of wealth and situation where salaries and wages are very low compared to the prevailing standard of living which leads to destitution of population, inability of authorities to provide public officials with merited salary make both of them be tempted to indulge in corrupt deals.   It also leads to lower corruption. Political instability causes a sense of uncertainty among the officials of different level;
• weakness of judicial system – is one of the main problems. Some of its demonstration: budget and executive system insufficiently support judges and court activities; poorly execute court decisions; lack of competent and qualified personnel consistent with demands of economical conditions and etc.

Consequences of corruption

The consequences of corruption for economic and social development are detrimental.

• Corruption deters investment and hinders growth.
• Corruption deters investment and hinders growth.
• It spurs inequality and erodes macroeconomic and fiscal stability.
• It reduces the impact of development assistance and provides an incentive to exploit natural resources, further depleting our environmental assets.
• It reduces the effectiveness of public administration and distorts public expenditure decisions, channeling urgently needed resources away from sectors such as health and education to corruption-prone sectors or personal enrichment.
• It erodes the rule of law and harms the reputation of and trust in the state.

Corruption delays, disturbs and diverts growth and development.

Its impact is difficult to measure directly because corruption normally occurs within institutions, which have other inadequacies and weaknesses. It is therefore difficult to separate out corruption as an independent variable especially because corruption appears to be both a cause and effect of inefficient and unaccountable institutions.

What is clear is that, when taken with other forms of institutional weakness, corruption is a cause of low economic growth.
Corruption is believed to have a significant impact on lowering investment, both foreign and domestic. Corruption increases the uncertainty and risk attached to investment as well as reducing the incentive for entrepreneurs. According to IMF research, lowering investment accounts for at least one third of corruption's overall negative effects.

To implement sustained development programmes, governments need secure, reliable and expanding revenue sources, but where corruption occurs in the form of tax evasion, there is a corresponding shortage of funds for productive investment.

Corruption can also influence the willingness of the donor community to provide aid and development assistance. High levels of corruption can cause donors to suspend, reduce or withdraw development assistance.

When corruption takes hold, spending is diverted from productive programmes, such as education, with a high correlation with economic growth and into public spending on capital projects, such as buying military equipment, which generate large bribes.

Corruption slows investment, erodes the revenue base and disturbs the composition of public spending.