| Anti-corruption strategies must go beyond blanket | | | | for obtaining information about the wealth of public |
| condemnations. Privately, at least, one must be very | | | | servants. But despite its powers, at first no one |
| shrewd about where to begin and how. One must | | | | believed that the ICAC would succeed any more than |
| involve local people in the analysis of the costs and | | | | previous efforts to rewrite laws and create |
| benefits of various kinds of corruption in international | | | | investigatory bodies. Credibility came when the |
| business transactions in the country in question. When | | | | ex-police chief of Hong Kong, Peter Godber, was |
| deciding what to do first, one must keep in mind the | | | | extradited from retirement in England and punished in |
| need to begin with a quick success, and then attack | | | | Hong Kong. The ICAC also nailed the ex-number two |
| areas with highest benefit-cost ratios. | | | | and scores of other high-ranking police officials. |
| An anti-corruption effort should not try to do too many | | | | To a cynical public and a hardened civil service, frying |
| things at once, but to launch a campaign that tries to | | | | these big fish sent a credible signal: "The rules of the |
| break the culture of corruption. (1 will discuss the | | | | game really have changed." |
| principle of the big fish in a moment.) | | | | Mexico is famously corrupt, but most observers |
| In short, then, a generic model for a country program | | | | believe that things have improved markedly under |
| would include:o Participatory diagnoses by local people | | | | President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. He, too, created |
| of the problems, their extent, and their causes (more | | | | new capabilities of investigation and enforcement. But |
| on how to do this below);o A combination of a system | | | | his efforts too were originally greeted with disbelief. |
| of structural reforms carefully sequenced with a | | | | Had not his predecessor Miguel de la Madrid called for |
| politically powerful message and some early | | | | a "renovation " but failed to stem corruption? Salinas |
| successes to gain credibility;o Which areas first: where | | | | did not gain credibility until his enforcers pounced on the |
| the public perceives the problem (e.g., extortion in | | | | notorious head of the Pemex syndicate, on a leading |
| Philippines; licensing bureau in Venezuela; police and | | | | narcotics trafficker, and on three high-powered |
| courts in many countries); where the economic costs | | | | business people who had fiddled with the Mexican |
| the greatest (actions that distort policies as opposed to | | | | stock exchange. One of the latter was the head of |
| who gets a specific contract); where easiest to make | | | | Salinas own campaign in one state. The message: If |
| a difference in the benefit-cost sense;o Getting big fish | | | | these big fish can be caught and fried, political impunity |
| (many ways to get). Illicit wealth as criteria. People | | | | is a thing of the past. |
| know who is corrupt, yet most charges are false in | | | | Italy recent and unprecedented success in attacking |
| public hot lines etc. Has to be within the ruling party or | | | | corruption has attracted worldwide attention. The |
| not credible;o Reforms of incentives (first the easy | | | | crucial first step was frying a top Mafia official, many |
| ones revenue-raising areas), then systematic reforms | | | | top business executives, and several major politicians |
| beginning with objectives, on to measures, and finally to | | | | from the ruling party. This told the public that if they |
| pay-performance links; ando Greater transparency. | | | | came forward and denounced crime and corruption, |
| Denouncing and prosecuting a few big-time | | | | they could make a difference. |
| perpetrators of bribery, extortion, smuggling, tax | | | | There are more recent examples of big fish being |
| evasion, and other illicit activities. But to learn this lesson | | | | fried, such as Venezuela, Brazil, Japan. Around the |
| from recent international experience, people must also | | | | world we are witnessing a transformation as important |
| learn one more: successful campaigns against | | | | as the democratic reforms of the 1980s. There is an |
| corruption do not stop with denunciations. They go | | | | emerging consensus that democracy without good |
| beyond the prosecution of individuals to the systematic | | | | government is a charade, just as privatization without |
| reform of information and incentives in both the public | | | | competition is a charade. The 1990s are becoming the |
| and private sectors. | | | | decade of institutional adjustment, meaning the |
| First some examples : Hong Kong used to be awash | | | | improvement of the institutions through which states |
| in corruption. Then in 1973 a new Independent | | | | and markets function. And the first step in this |
| Commission against Corruption was formed. It had | | | | transformation turns out to require dramatic action |
| new teeth, and new eyes. It possessed powers to | | | | against high-level abusers of existing institutions. |
| investigate suspected offenders and had new means | | | | |