CORRUPTION IN CONFLICT

gains from corruption often benefit not just an individual, but a family, clan, tribe,
or ethnic group.
Table 1 defines the most common categories of corruption.
TABLE 1: CATEGORIES OF CORRUPTION
Category of
corruption Description
Bribery The offering, promising, giving, accepting, or soliciting of an advantage as
an inducement for an action which is illegal, unethical, or a breach of trust.
Inducements can take the form of gifts, loans, fees, rewards, or other advantages
(e.g., taxes, services, donations, favors).
Clientelism An unequal system of exchanging resources and favors based on an exploitative
relationship between a wealthier or more powerful “patron” and a less wealthy or
weaker “client.”
Collusion A secret agreement between parties, in the public or private sector, to conspire
to commit actions aimed to deceive or commit fraud with the objective of illicit
financial gain.
Embezzlement When a person holding office in an institution, organization, or company
dishonestly and illegally appropriates, uses, or traffics the funds and goods they
have been entrusted with for personal enrichment or other activities.
Extortion Act of using, either directly or indirectly, one’s access to a position of power or
knowledge to demand unmerited cooperation or compensation as a result of
coercive threats.
Facilitation
Payment
Fraud
Grand
Corruption
Nepotism
Patronage
Petty
Corruption
State Capture
A small bribe, also called a facilitating, speed, or grease payment, made to
secure or expedite the performance of a routine or necessary action to which the
payer has legal or other entitlement.
The offense of intentionally deceiving someone in order to gain an unfair or illegal
advantage (financial, political, or other).
The abuse of high-level power that benefits the few at the expense of the many,
and causes serious and widespread harm to individuals and society.
A form of favoritism based on acquaintances and familiar relationships, whereby
someone in an official position exploits his power and authority to provide a
job or favor to a family member or friend, even though he may not be qualified
or deserving.
A form of favoritism in which a person is selected, regardless of qualifications or
entitlement, for a job or government benefit due to affiliations or connections.
Everyday abuse of entrusted power by public officials in their interactions with
ordinary citizens, who often are trying to access basic goods or services in places
like hospitals, schools, police departments, and other agencies.
A situation where powerful individuals, institutions, companies, or groups
within or outside a country use corruption to influence a nation’s policies, legal
environment, and economy to benefit their own private interests.
Source: Transparency International, Anticorruption Glossary, http://www.transparency.org/glossary.
Experts often make the distinction between petty and grand corruption, though
corruption can occur along a continuum between the two. 5 Petty corruption
refers to smaller-scale, everyday abuse of power by low- and mid-level officials,
for example, the requirement to pay a bribe for access to goods or services.
Grand corruption involves “exchanges of resources, access to [economic] rents,
or other advantages for high-level officials, privileged firms, and their networks
of elite operatives and supporters.” 6 Acts of grand corruption typically involve
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