Giant_and_Dwarf-FIN

Giant and Dwarfat home constitute a crime. Finally, in 1999, the OECD coordinated its member countriestowards the adoption of legislation to make the bribery of foreign public officials a crime.The question remains as to how strictly companies adhere to this legislation. At the veryleast, simple bribes can no longer be reported directly in tax declarations. Of course wherethere is a willingness to be corrupt and a lack of knowledge about the tragic consequencesof corruption in poor countries, such bribes can be easily masked by contracts for fictitiousservices. Two sectors of the economy with the worst reputation in terms of the highestlevels of corruption are the extraction of raw materials, which is dominant in many of theeconomies of the bottom billion, and construction, the El Dorado of corruption in CentralEurope as well. Corruption in the construction industry is the dirty little secret of manyveteran road builders and will continue to be so.Money lost to corruption is not restricted to money missing for development. The consequencesof such losses are much more devastating as it enables a system of patronageto exist and undermines the foundation of democracy. In countries where costs for electioncampaigns are very high, cash from corruption and other forms of organized crime oftenmean that the best and upstanding people who have not stolen have absolutely no chanceof getting involved in pre-election activities and to compete for votes. A few decades ago thecosts of an election campaign for a senator in Nigeria was half a million dollars. It comes asno surprise that this parody of democracy always got the most corrupt individuals electedto office. They are the only ones who can afford to finance a massive and stifling campaignon thousands of billboards, TV stations, radio stations and newspaper pages or to buy votesin bulk through local leaders and chiefs. Most people in Central Europe, Italy and NorthAmerica know that this is not exclusive to politicians and politics in Africa.The introduction of laws and standards can also be an effective development tool.Nothing documents this better than the experience from former Communist countriesduring the process of integration with the European Union. Conditionality in the form ofadopting the acquis communautaire was the decisive force in the process of modernizingthe Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and the Baltic states. Its adoption and applicationwas rewarded with a real promise of easier entry into the Union itself. For the countriesof Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, the chances of entering the EU were remote, whichmeant that this modernizing force was much weaker. Unfortunately for the countries ofthe bottom billion there is no hope of entry into the EU or any similar mechanism thatwould motivate them to intensively adopt stricter standards.Thankfully where no such strong magnet exists, it is possible to use agreements thatwould help the bottom billion out of the trap of exporting raw materials. A British initiativebegan in 2002 under the name Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative or EITI, whichhad the goal of increasing transparency in the extraction industry. In 2009, Azerbaijanbecame the first country to meet all EITI-defined criteria and these have now been met by12 other developing countries, including Nigeria. Up to 15 African countries have candidate160