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DEALING WITH WHITE COLLAR CRIME
A PRACTICAL APPROACH TO THE
PREVENTION OF CORRUPTION
What is Corruption?
It is important at this stage to understand what we mean by corruption. The offence of corruption as defined in the United Kingdom Public Bodies Corrupts Practices Act 1889 and the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906, consists of three main elements. It has to be shown:
- that a gift or consideration was given or offered by one party to another;
- That the gift or consideration was given, or received, as an inducement or reward for services to be rendered or already rendered in relation to official duties; and
- that the transaction took place corruptly.
An April 1996 memorandum prepared by the Directorate of Legal Affairs of the Council of Europe's Multidisciplinary Group on Corruption describes corruption thus:
The simplest from of corruption is where one individual hands over cash (services or goods) to another in return for services rendered or to be rendered. Complications may ensue in respect of the following four parameters: the person involved, the services rendered, the consideration received and the manner in which the latter is transmitted.
Among the persons involved are, of course, sellers of purchasers of all kinds commodities or services on the basis of private of public transactions, political decision makers, civil servants (national and international) responsible for selling, purchasing, selecting or controlling, police officers, bailiffs, prosecutors and judges, and also journalists, who may be paid to put questions to the government, footballers, who may agree to have a "off day", sports coaches or club managers, who may make surprising decisions, and so on and so forth. The list is endless. Many people apparently get involved at both ends of a corruption affair.. they offer bribes (the obvious part), but they also accept them. Or they may play the part of go-between, e.g. they might be paid for promising to exert influence on a person they rightly or wrongly claim to influence (influence peddling).
The above list gives some idea of the multitude of areas potentially inviting corruption. Buying, selling, selecting, legislating, supervising or failing to supervise, doing one's job properly or improperly, even speaking, mentioning a name, putting a question, designating an object or posing beside it, appearing as at a given place or wearing a given item of clothing, all may be the subject of a corruption agreement
The Attorney-General of the Witwatersrand in his address to SACOB Conference on Ethics and Corruption in 1993 had this to say about corruption:
Corruption as a generic term covers a multitude of sins such as moral and ethical depravity, social conduct which society finds unacceptable and that type of conduct that falls within the description of an offence and is visited by punishment inflicted by law.
The appropriate law in South Africa is the Corruption Act (Act 94 of 1992). A copy is attached to Annexure A. This makes it an offence to corruptly give or offer any benefit not legally due to a person holding office in the public or private sector with the intention:
- to influence him/her to do any act or inaction in relation to the powers or duties conferred on that person; or
- to reward such a person for having committed or omitted to do any act constituting an excess of his power or a neglect of his duty.
The Act also makes it an offence for any person holding office to corruptly receive a benefit or reward not legally due, even if the giver of that benefit or reward did not have the intention to reward that person for committing a certain act or omitting to do an act.
Faced with the above, where does the manager begin his/her prevention strategy? We are of the view that a much simpler definition is required and suggest:
Corruption is a favour offered for a favour granted in return, during which transaction damage is done to the organisation concerned.