A report published in mid-June by watchdogs Transparency International UK claims that corruption is a much greater problem in the UK than recognised and that there is an inadequate response to its growing threat.
<br><br>Corruption is a growing threat in the UK – and flourishing in some parts – but the response is inadequate. That’s according to a report published in mid-June by watchdogs Transparency International UK.<br><br>In a poll by Gallup, more than half of the public believe that UK corruption is getting worse. Many people are willing to report corruption, but don’t know where. Public sector cuts could make corruption more of a risk. It’s not all gloom: the report speaks of ‘a strong public antipathy to corruption’ and an overall robust ‘national integrity system’. <br><br>The three-volume report by University of Teesside academics – described by TI as the most extensive study into UK corruption ever – examines 23 sectors and concludes that key institutions are refusing to confront the problem.<br><br>TI points to what it terms the tentacles of organised crime increasingly extending to sectors such as prisons and sport where criminal activity and corruption are inextricably linked, affecting businesses, communities, the economy, and society’s most vulnerable groups. The prison system is one of four areas singled out for concern, with political parties, parliament, and sport;<br><br>• There are an estimated 1000 corrupt prison officers working in the UK;<br>• This facilitates organised crime to take place within and outside of the prison;<br>• The prison service has reduced its capacity to monitor and investigate the problem.<br><br>The report calls for effective enforcement of the new Bribery Act, laws on money laundering, and related legislation, within a zero-tolerance framework, as the only way to fight corruption successfully. TI calls for UK Government departments and others to co-operate against corruption, given the relation between organised crime and corruption. On this score, TI worries about the abolition of the Audit Commission (which has done work into the investigation of fraud and corruption in local government and the NHS) and the dismantling of the Serious Fraud Office. The end of the SFO could harm enforcement of the Bribery Act because, as the report says, ‘investigation and prosecution of bribery can be complex, expensive, time-consuming and therefore relatively more resource-intensive than law enforcement in other areas’. <br><br>Chandrashekhar Krishnan, Executive Director of Transparency International UK said: “The research represents a ‘corruption health-check’ for the UK, in which the diagnosis is ‘growing threat, inadequate response’. Disturbingly, there is complacency and a lack of knowledge of the extent of the problem in key sectors. Some of our most trusted institutions are vulnerable, and there are inadequate procedures to detect and prevent corruption.<br><br>“My hope is that these findings, and our recommendations, will serve as a wake-up call to society and that the UK will seize this opportunity to adopt robust, coherent and co-ordinated policies to counter the growing threat of corruption.”<br><br>The report says: “Social housing is exploited by organised criminals to facilitate drug trafficking and prostitution, or to house illegal immigrants who are involved in such activities. The employment of illegal workers is regarded by the construction industry as the single biggest corruption threat to the sector as it damages fair competition. In each of these areas the corruption of key officials, often in the form of bribery, is a critical factor in allowing the wrong-doing …”<br><br>The UK is fortunate to be a country where corruption is not widespread, the report points out. The report like TI in general places ‘a premium on the existence of a robust ‘national integrity system’ which provide checks and balances to those in power, whether elected representatives, economic power, or power in other forms. Tone from the top is particularly important …” TI warns against complacency: if unchecked, corruption can rapidly destroy a society, it warns. As the report says, corruption may be legal but unethical: “The MPs’ expenses scandal, which resulted in few prosecutions, exemplifies this.” The report’s examples of types of corruption makes plain how widespread the risks are across business: bribery (bribing an ancillary staff member at a prison to smuggle a mobile phone for a prisoner), collusion (construction firms agreeing in advance what price each will bid for a government contract), conflict of interest (an official in a housing association who allocates properties unfairly to family members), and cronyism (a political party nominating as a member of the House of Lords someone who is a large party donor); gifts (tickets and hospitality at major sporting events, offered to a head of procurement at an NHS trust by a bidding company during a tender process); and misuse of IT systems (a police officer disclosing the progress of an investigation to one of the parties being investigated). In the poll, political parties were perceived as the most corrupt, followed by professional sport and Parliament. The education system, military and NHS were perceived as the least corrupt. The report goes into more detail on branches of the UK, such as procurement, the NHS, and the legal profession. For instance the report speaks of ‘a strong sense that, within the UK, there is
a current inability to detect corruption at lower levels. Perhaps this is why, as one respondent indicated, there is a reluctance to pursue procurement corruption within the UK’.
And on police corruption, the report suggests the UK has seen a reduction in systemic corruption in the police. The researchers quote criminologist Maurice Punch that “the old style corruption where groups of detectives had familiar relations with criminals and met in pubs to pass on information has gone because it’s too visible; it is too open to scrutiny. But new opportunities are always being created and exploited’. New subcultures have emerged, particularly involving bodybuilding and weightlifting, forging new associations between criminals and members of the police force. The report makes the point that most criminal corruptors are interested in information, whether to compromise an investigation, identify any leaks in their own organisation, or simply to know better law enforcement tactics. Times change, the report points out: that police forces have more IT and backroom staff has ‘changed the landscape of police corruption in the UK’.
The research had this to say about performance management systems in the public sector: they can ‘create perverse incentives for individuals to act in a corrupt manner and create a complicit culture (whether through fear of arguing with the boss or the possibility
of extra earnings). Performance regimes may create a corrupt environment – schools may manipulate exam results to get better funding and publicity; as for prisons, if serious criminals have corrupted prison officers so that the prisoners can continue running crime while in jail, the prisoners may make less trouble – which makes the prison look peaceful and better-performing. <br><br>To download the reports –
