An Introduction to the Special Issue on the Problem of Corruption and on Feasible Ways of Tackling it
by Professor Nestor Courakis
Guest Editor of "The Art of Crime", issue 7
The issue of corruption was first seen as being at the centre of
attention in the US mainly during the 1970s, due to bribery practices which
came to light in foreign markets on behalf of notorious American companies.
However, this interest was only extended worldwide in the 1990s, and so, in
many developed economies of the West, cases of corruption seemed to have a
broader scope and a corresponding negative impact on the smooth functioning of
the economy. This evolution was helped by the collapse of the regimes of the
so-called "real socialism" and the rapid development of economic
"globalization", and with all the consequences of these on lifting
restrictions on international markets and in a display of extreme forms of
competition.
Indeed, there were many multinational companies which tried, through unscrupulous
means, to secure jobs or to dominate national contracts within their own
country or in other countries. These cases led to a serious additional burden
on taxpayers with useless expenditure, e.g. by purchasing equipment or with exorbitant
increased public spending on low-quality public works and services. To cope
with this situation, there has been drafting and signing of interstate
agreements against corruption by leading international and European
organizations, such as the OECD (17.12.1997), or the European Community as it was
formally known (26.5.1997), the Council of Europe (27.1.1999 and 22.7.2003) and
the United Nations (31.10.2003).
Furthermore, control mechanisms were established, for the verification
of corruption problems in different countries and to formulate proposals to
tackle these problems through evaluation reports. The Groupe d ´États Contre la
Corruption (abbreviated: GRECO) from the Council of Europe should especially be
mentioned at this point, as well as the OECD Working Group on Bribery, the
Implementary Review Group UNCAC and, more recently, the European Commission which
publishes the EU Anti-Corruption Report on a regular basis.
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