Countless Corruption Cases
Corruption is present in the high levels of society all over the world and commonly involves a person accepting bribes or benefits in exchange for allowing money-making schemes to play out within an organisation. Some things that may be offered are money, no prison time, drugs or assassinations.
An index called the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), shows a world map indicating some of the most corrupt nations on the planet with these ranging from areas of Brazil to Colombia, Venezuela to Equatorial Guinea, Somalia to Russia.
Brazil: A Story of Money & Greed
A theme that develops in corruption cases is the presence of cash as a bribing method. On 17th March 2014, an investigation that was named Operation Car Wash was launched, and this was to investigate one of the worst scandals in the history of corruption. It involved an oil company, Petrobras, accepting around $2.1 billion in bribes.
During the investigation, it was found that a man named Alberto Youssef was improperly paid by the construction firms that bought contracts with Petrobras. Linked to this, firms then paid Petrobras to sell the contracts to them at inflated prices. It was also found that Alberto Youssef received a Range Rover Evoque for Paulo Roberto Costa, and that’s when the investigation expanded nationwide. To their own benefit, Costa and Youssef helped with the investigation because the prison sentence would be reduced if they did so. President Lula was also involved in the case, but on the wrong side. 15 years of prison was the sentence that he was handed out.
Corruption in Columbia: A tale of drugs and protests
Colombia is one of the nations that is stereotypically associated with corruption, as well as drugs, corruption and more dating back from the 1970s, with one of the key figures in the formation of this stereotype being Pablo Escobar. In mid-2017 one of Colombia’s top anti-corruption office officials got apprehended on US charges of money laundering in connection with an alleged bribery scheme. It is thought that the anti-corruption officials offered to give the politician they were illegally working with copies of witness statements from a corruption case against him in return for 100 million Colombian pesos ($34,500; £27,000). The scandal of having one of the best anti-corruption units being infiltrated represents the true scale and nature of Colombia’s corruption issues. In a time when leaders have such social power, it could benefit the world if people could work together to stop corruption from happening. A prime example of this in Columbia is when more than 200,000 citizens took to the streets to show discontent over possible austerity measures. In addition to this, some people saw this as a huge failure to honour a 2016 peace deal with left-wing FARC rebels. This was due to a rise in violence. Colombia’s corruption is also the result of a long coexistence between the drug trafficking and a rush of society members to achieve easy wealth, creating a complex economic and political system filled with corruption and underhand dealings.
Somalia: A country where corruption is key to success
Somalia is ranked last place in the list of the least corrupt countries with a dismissal placement of 180/180, making them the most corrupt nation in the world currently. This is the situation Somalia is in and has been in for a long time. This is due to a wide variety of issues. Let’s go back to 2016, to look at one of their most prominent corruption cases. It was alleged by the BBC that some candidates for leadership roles in Somalia paid people up to one million UK pounds. Somalia swiftly denied these accusations, but due to the reputation of the country, many still believe today that the government were lying. In Somalia there is also a lack of freedom of speech. Several are said to have been killed after trying to voice their opinion against the corrupt government. Linking to the underlying corruption, the situation has deteriorated following a lengthy war and it is now clear that Somalis is very underdeveloped. It was quoted by Newsweek that “Somalia is a country that did not have a functional government since 1991,”, further highlighting Somalia’s predicament.
In conclusion, horrific corruption cases occurring all over the world. More scandals that we have not mentioned include: Turkey’s gas for gold scheme and Nigeria being drained of much of its most precious assets. These are just a few of the thousands that exist with some of them being small, to the nationwide scandals that become huge investigations. With corruption being so widespread around the world, particularly in developing nations, maybe it is time the more developed nations attempt to aid and introduce more democratic and just methods to aid development in these hostile environments.
A joint article by DGSChapter journalists Ramadan and Kodi
Image by © Ricky, Editor-in-Chief