Download or read book Corruption and Reform written by Edward L. Glaeser and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2007-11-01 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite recent corporate scandals, the United States is among the world’s least corrupt nations. But in the nineteenth century, the degree of fraud and corruption in America approached that of today’s most corrupt developing nations, as municipal governments and robber barons alike found new ways to steal from taxpayers and swindle investors. In Corruption and Reform, contributors explore this shadowy period of United States history in search of better methods to fight corruption worldwide today. Contributors to this volume address the measurement and consequences of fraud and corruption and the forces that ultimately led to their decline within the United States. They show that various approaches to reducing corruption have met with success, such as deregulation, particularly “free banking,” in the 1830s. In the 1930s, corruption was kept in check when new federal bureaucracies replaced local administrations in doling out relief. Another deterrent to corruption was the independent press, which kept a watchful eye over government and business. These and other facets of American history analyzed in this volume make it indispensable as background for anyone interested in corruption today.
Download or read book The World Bank Group Sanctions Process and Its Recent Reforms written by Anne-Marie Leroy and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012 with total page 53 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The World Bank is one of the world's premier international financial institutions. It provides low-interest loans, interest-free credits, and grants to developing countries for a wide array of purposes that include investments in education, health, public administration, infrastructure, financial and private sector development, agriculture, and environmental and natural resource management, with aggregate new lending commitments of approximately $60 billion and aggregate outstanding loans and credits of $230 billion in Fiscal Year 2010. With the financial support provided by the Bank, borrowers implement projects and programs, including the procurement of goods, works, and services necessary to carry out the project or program activities. The study begins by outlining the principal features of the Bank Group's sanctions process as it exists today (part two) and sketches some the key consideration underlying reform of the Bank's sanctions process (part three). It then describes how those considerations have influenced the historical evolution of the sanctions process (part four), with particular focus on the recent changes that the Bank has adopted to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and procedural of that process (part five). Finally, it concludes by reflecting on some of the longer-term implications of the reform process to date (part six).
Download or read book Fighting Corruption in Public Services written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012-02-01 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book chronicles the anti-corruption reforms in public services in Georgia since the Rose Revolution in late 2003. Through a series of case studies, the book draws out the how of these reforms and distills the key success factors.
Download or read book Corrupt Cities written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2000 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much of the devastation caused by the recent earthquake in Turkey was the result of widespread corruption between the construction industry and government officials. Corruption is part of everyday public life and we tend to take it for granted. However, preventing corruption helps to raise city revenues, improve service delivery, stimulate public confidence and participation, and win elections. This book is designed to help citizens and public officials diagnose, investigate and prevent various kinds of corrupt and illicit behaviour. It focuses on systematic corruption rather than the free-lance activity of a few law-breakers, and emphasises practical preventive measures rather than purely punitive or moralistic campaigns.
Download or read book Banks Reforms and Corruption written by and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Fighting Corruption in Public Services written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2012-01-24 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the Rose Revolution at the end of 2003, Georgia has had singular success in fighting corruption in a variety of public services. This book is an attempt to chronicle these efforts and to distil the 'how to' of these anti-corruption reforms. The reason corruption in public services had to be fought was clear. What had to be done was also obvious to many. But little has been written on 'how' the government made it happen. What were the salient features of Georgia's anti-corruption reforms? Can Georgia's success with cleaning up its public services be replicated elsewhere or is it unique? And are the achievements to date in Georgia sustainable? This book tries to answer these questions. It uses available data and interviews with current and former government officials to describe the challenges facing government, the decisions made, and the tradeoffs considered. It presents eight case studies covering anti-corruption reforms in the patrol police, taxes, customs, power supply, business deregulations, civil and public registries, university entrance exams, and municipal services. They also analyze the accountability framework between the government, public services providers and the users of the services. From these case studies, ten themes emerge that help explain Georgia's success story: having strong political will and vision; establishing credibility early; undertaking a frontal assault; attracting new staff; limiting the role of the state; adopting unconventional methods; coordinating closely; tailoring international experience to local conditions; harnessing technology; and using communications strategically. Many of these may seem obvious. What was special was the comprehensiveness, boldness, pace, and sequencing of these reforms. Much still remains to be done in Georgia, especially in strengthening the institutions that safeguard against a relapse of corruption, and in ensuring adequate checks and balances. And while each country is unique, many elements of Georgia's story can be replicated elsewhere. Georgia's success destroys the myth that 'corruption is culture' and gives hope to all those aspiring to clean up their public services.
Download or read book The World Bank and the Gods of Lending written by Steve Berkman and published by Kumarian Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uncovering the World Bank’s loan programs in the developing world in The World Bank and the Gods of Lending, author Steve Berkman finds nothing but mismanagement and hypocrisy: decades of assistance without any significant improvement in the lives of the poor; billions loaned for improving governance, health care and education with little to show for it; and donor funds given to dysfunctional government institutions or officials with a history of looting national treasuries. With sixteen years as a Bank staff member and consultant, Berkman presents compelling evidence of deceptive reporting and lack of due diligence as billions of dollars are wasted every year on corrupt and ill-conceived programs. Using internal reports and memos, project documents and the Bank’s Annual Reports as reference, Berkman demonstrates management’s obsession with lending despite the high fiduciary risks involved. Taking the reader inside several project fraud investigations, he exposes the ease with which funds can be stolen from the Bank’s portfolio, and the degree to which these thefts are ignored. Painting a picture of an institution that is run by a bloated bureaucracy, The World Bank and the Gods of Lending proposes changes that will rouse the Bank from its bureaucratic complacency and restore its central mission of alleviating poverty.
Download or read book Public Sector Reform written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The effectiveness and efficiency of a country's public sector is vital to the success of development activities, including those the World Bank supports. Sound financial management, an efficient civil service and administrative policy, efficient and fair collection of taxes, and transparent operations that are relatively free of corruption all contribute to good delivery of public services. The Bank has devoted an increasing share of its lending and advisory support to the reform of central governments, so it is important to understand what is working, what needs improvement, and what is missing. IEG has examined lending and other kinds of Bank support in 1999-2006 for public sector reform in four areas: public financial management, administrative and civil service, revenue administration, and anticorruption and transparency. Although a majority of countries that borrowed to support public sector reform experienced improved performance in some dimensions, there were shortcomings in important areas and in overall coordination. . The frequency of improvement was higher among IBRD borrowers than among IDA borrowers. . Performance usually improved for public financial management, tax administration, and transparency, but did not usually with respect to civil service.
Download or read book Anticorruption in Transition written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2000-01-01 with total page 138 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the increasing recognition across the world of the damaging effects of corruption on economic growth and social stability. This report seeks to unpack the varied practices of corruption to identify and compare different patterns of the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Baltic states, and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It then draws out lessons for tailoring anticorruption strategies to address the variation across the region in an effort to target reforms more effectively. The report draws on many sources of ongoing research and lessons of experience, including the World Bank's work in this area. It is intended as a contribution to the growing policy dialogue on developing practical strategies for reducing corruption.
Download or read book Paraguay written by Jeffrey R. Franks and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2005-09-07 with total page 142 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication examines the long-standing problems of corruption in Paraguay and its economic effects. It considers how these institutional problems have contributed to the country's long-term economic underperformance and options for addressing these problems drawing from international best practices. Issues discussed include: financial crises and private sector credit, reform of the Caja Fiscal, equilibrium real exchange rate, terms of trade and regional factors.
Download or read book The Nigerian Banking Sector Reforms written by Seth Apati and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first comprehensive book on the politics and economics of financial sector consolidation in an emerging market in West Africa. It draws on the author's twenty years experience working with multinationals in this oil-rich zone, to address key issues and examine banking reform in one of the world's fastest-growing economies. With over $400 billion looted from the porous banking sector of Africa's oil-rich giant, Nigeria, banking sector reform is a key priority for the Central Bank and the newly-elected civilian regime, to attract foreign investors. However, several vested institutional and political interests make the reforms a herculean and near impossible task. After a hastily-designed economic policy and a banking industry consolidation which reduced the number of banks from 89 to 25 in 2 years, the regulators discovered that the quest for size reduction had created more problems for the banks. Was the consolidation successful? Did it impact positivelyon Nigeria's economic reform programme? And how did the US, the IMF and the World Bank contribute to the outcome? This book presents an almost minute-by-minute chronicle of the politics and intrigues, from a key boardroom participant who was actively involved in the restructuring of the Nigerian banking industry. It examines the corruption, regulatory challenge, and financial sector reforms in the world's largest black economy.Giving avivid account of how the banking sector in Nigeria prospered at the expense of the overall economy, the book traces the origins of the Nigerian banking reform, the dynamics of its banking sector, and future outlook of this emerging market - a country that aims to be one of the 20th largest economies in the world by 2020.
Download or read book Utilities Reforms and Corruption in Developing Countries written by Antonio Estache and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2006 with total page 30 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper shows empirically that "privatization" in the energy, telecommunications, and water sectors, and the introduction of independent regulators in those sectors, have not always had the expected effects on access, affordability, or quality of services. It also shows that corruption leads to adjustments in the quantity, quality, and price of services consistent with the profit-maximizing behavior that one would expect from monopolies in the sector. The results suggest that privatization and the introduction of independent regulators have, at best, only partial effects on the consequences of corruption for access, affordability, and quality of utility services.
Download or read book Hypocrisy Trap written by Catherine Weaver and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-27 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the preeminent international development agency for the past sixty years, the World Bank has attracted equal amounts of criticism and praise. Critics are especially quick to decry the World Bank's hypocrisy--the pervasive gaps between the organization's talk, decisions, and actions. In the wake of the Paul Wolfowitz leadership scandal in May 2006, perceptions of hypocrisy have exacted a heavy toll on the Bank's authority and fueled strong demands for wide-scale reform. Yet what exactly does the hypocrisy of the World Bank look like, and what or who causes it? In Hypocrisy Trap, Catherine Weaver explores how the characteristics of change in a complex international organization make hypocrisy difficult to resolve, especially after its exposure becomes a critical threat to the organization's legitimacy and survival. Using a rich sociological model and several years of field research, Weaver delves into the political and cultural worlds within and outside of the Bank to uncover the tensions that incite and perpetuate organized hypocrisy. She examines the sources and dynamics of hypocrisy in the critical cases of the Bank's governance and anticorruption agenda, and its recent Strategic Compact reorganization. The first book to unravel the puzzle of organized hypocrisy in relation to reform at the World Bank, Hypocrisy Trap ultimately enriches our understanding of culture, behavior, and change in international organizations. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.
Download or read book Crisis and Reform The 1893 Demise of Banca Romana written by Mr.Marco Pani and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2017-12-14 with total page 62 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than a century later, the Banca Romana crisis still provides useful insights on the challenges of preserving financial stability. This paper reviews the case and discusses implications that can be relevant today. The crisis was spurred by an unsustainable credit expansion encouraged by capital inflows, which provoked an asset price bubble and other imbalances. A system of corruption and collusion with politicians and journalists enabled the bank managers to run risky and illegal operations – effectively, asset-stripping – undetected and unhindered. As a result, it would not have been easy for an observer not endowed with investigative powers to detect the mounting risks, while the government, which had these powers, failed to take action when needed and concealed critical information from the public. When the crisis erupted, its resolution was facilitated by a previous, decade-long debate on the reform of the banking system which had led to the exploration and development of possible solutions that could then be rapidly implemented.
Download or read book The Many Faces of Corruption written by J. Edgardo Campos and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2007-04-04 with total page 484 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Corruption... How can policymakers and practitioners better comprehend the many forms and shapes that this socialpandemic takes? From the delivery of essential drugs, the reduction in teacher absenteeism, the containment of illegal logging, the construction of roads, the provision of water andelectricity, the international trade in oil and gas, the conduct of public budgeting and procurement, and the management of public revenues, corruption shows its many faces. 'The Many Faces of Corruption' attempts to bring greater clarity to the often murky manifestations of this virulent and debilitating social disease. It explores the use of prototype road maps to identify corruption vulnerabilities, suggests corresponding 'warning signals,' and proposes operationally useful remedial measures in each of several selected sectors and for a selected sampleof cross cutting public sector functions that are particularlyprone to corruption and that are critical to sector performance.Numerous technical experts have come together in this effort to develop an operationally useful approach to diagnosing and tackling corruption. 'The Many Faces of Corruption' is an invaluable reference for policymakers, practitioners, andresearchers engaged in the business of development.
Download or read book Combating Corruption in the Multilateral Development Banks written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 100 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Economic Reform and Corruption written by Mustafa Kamal and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The notion that economic reform can reduce corruption remains prevalent in the policy agenda of international financial institutions, especially of the World Bank. Economic reforms have, therefore, been carried out throughout various parts of the world to improve the performance of the economies. Using data from 94 low- and middle-income nations for the period 1996-2015, this study employs static and dynamic panel analysis to examine whether economic reform undertaken in accordance with the World Bank's reform programs negatively affects corruption. Our findings suggest that enhancing government effectiveness (i.e. independence of civil service from political pressure, provision of quality public services, effective policy formulation and the government's commitment to such policies) and improving public rights and civil liberties could be some of the most promising policies in terms of fighting corruption. The role of economic development and growth in real per capita income is also found to be significant in some of the specifications. However, the assertion that economic reform can reduce corruption is rejected in all the specifications. We rather find evidence that economic reforms negatively affect the ability of democracy to fight corruption, although on a slim margin. The central theme of the implications of our findings is that in combating corruption, social, institutional and legal means are far more important than economic means. The finding thus is compatible with the World Bank's effort in the later years to introduce governance and democracy as effective tool against corruption.
