Bribery in Australia
Discuss about the Types of Corruption In Australia.
In the present scenario, corruption is considered as a social evil found in every society of the world. It is a misuse of the power and also considered as illegal behavior considered by the people for personal gain. It has been analyzed that corruption has negatively impacted on the economic position of the country. It is an act in which one person gives something to the other person and in return, that person works and conducts the act according to the given instructions. It is not ethical in the eye of law. Therefore, in this paper, the discussion will be made on the types of corruption in Australia. In the last phase, the focus will be given on the strategies that should be considered by the government.
There are various types of corruptions that take place in Australia. Like Bribery, Electoral fraud, and slush fund.
Bribery is considered as an act of giving someone money or valuable in order to do something in return for you. The person gives bribe to the other so that they can conduct the act according to the instructions given by them (Bartlett, 2015). In Australia, bribery is considered as a common form of corruption which is considered by an individual. The risk of corruption takes place in context to the foreign bribery and the mining industry (Brand, 2016). When the focus is given to public sector and private sector it can be seen that both individuals and well as companies are targeted. The person who is engaged in the act of Bribery have to face the penalty of 10 years imprisonment and up to AUD 1.1, MIL is given by the person for the activities conducted by him or her. For business, the penalty is of AUD 17 MIL or the overall turnover of the company (Fehon, 2017). The same offense takes place for commonwealth public officers who take bribes and also the extra benefits form the other person.
Bribery is considered as an unethical act and it is a form of corruption that gives effect to the overall economy of the country. There are also many Australian Jurisdictions who are still considering bribery in the public office through the common law (Griffiths, 2015). In the eye of the common law, bribery is considered as an offense to give or take any undue reward to or by any individual in public office so that the individual behavior in the public office can be influenced. Reward it related to the advantage or the benefit and it is not limited to only money or property. Australia is considered as a 13th largest country in reference to corruption. The offense can also be applied where the act is conducted outside Australia but the person is alleged to have committed as an Australian citizen or resident of Australia (Latimer, 2017). He or she will also have to face penalty and punishments assigned for the unethical act related to bribery.
Electoral Fraud in Australia
Next corruption that takes place in Australia is related to Electoral fraud. In this, it is concerned with the manipulation done in elections. In this, the corruption is done with the reference of increasing the overall votes of a person or a favorite candidate by affecting the votes of the other party. It can be seen that in Australia there is a considerable amount of fraud that takes place in the elections (Aldashev and Mastrobuoni, 2016).
By focusing on the report given by Pew charitable trust it can be seen that there is approximately 18Mill registration of the voters which are not valid and correct. Also from that, approximately 2 million are dead and 2.75 are registered in more than one state (Braun, 2016). The fraud which takes place at the time of conducting voting of different parties also comes to the process of corruption. This also takes into consideration multiple voting of the people, voter impersonation, the registrations are not accurate and correct and people register in more than one state, voting done on the name of dead people and also non-citizen registration (Maley and Maley, 2016). The people are giving votes by considering the name of the people who are died and also they are indulging in the fraudulent activities which make the voting inaccurate.
It has also been analyzed that the department of electoral commission states that more than 18,000 individuals are asked that why they have given more than one vote in the present process of election. There are many parties who are taking fraud steps so that their party can win the elections. So, in Australia, there is the more Electoral fraud that should be stopped so that elections can be done with proper equality and justice.
Next type of corruption is related to the slush fund. Slush fund is also considered as a black money. It is a fund or the account which is managed and controlled by the activities which are corrupt and not legal in the eye of law. It is done especially in the sphere related to politics. These types of funds are kept in safe place or at a hidden place. The funds are maintained separately from the other funds that are taken into consideration for the legitimate purpose. The top management maintains a secret reserve of cash and the access is not to the employees of the employees. It is kept hidden from the other people or the companies so that more earning can be maintained (Graycar, 2017). In Australia, there are many schools who are keeping slush funds and they are giving some other name to the money which is received. Like the president of the Australian union of education given a pot of money as a slush fund and the accused education minister keep a secret and kept the name as a special deal that will help the school to be on a good position (McAllister, 2014). This is a form of corruption which is impacting the overall economic condition of Australia and also the activities which take place are affected because of it.
Slush Fund in Australia
There is no silver bullet that can curb the problem of corruption. However, with proper implementation of certain policies and governmental regulations, this can be minimized to a subsequent level. Several countries have been able to figure out few measures and are involved in a constant effort to improvise new ways of minimizing this issue. If we talk about bribery, there are several strategies that can be implemented to end this. The important step that needs to be taken is to end the impunity system wherein no person is exempted from being punished. An effective law enforcement system needs to be implemented where every person is treated equally when it comes to corruption and are subjected to suitable punishment.
Secondly, there should be a transparency in accessing the public information. It is evident that countries where such policy has been implemented, it has successfully increased the government responsiveness over any subject. It has also increased the participation of the public in several governmental projects. Setting up a proper auditing organization can be a significant step that can be implemented to minimize the bribery issue to ground level.
If the focus is given on the Electoral Fraud it is important for the government to consider the process in which the person who is giving the vote will not be able to give it again. It will help to reduce the fake votes and also the votes of the people who are died. In addition, the emphasis should be given by the nation that voting should be done on one day so that everyone can be presented on the polling booth one by one on the day of an election. At the time of taking a vote, the government should make some sign or should take their identity proof so that they cannot give it again and again (Norris, 2017). Fake votes impact on the overall equality of the voting system and the process get disturbed. Therefore it is important to consider proper control and investigation should be considered so that people who have given the votes can be analyzed in a proper manner.
To control the corruption related to slush fund it is important for the government to make proper rules and regulations which can help to keep track of every dollar sent and received for any governmental project can be audited and cross-checked so that there is no margin left for the reserve money which is used specifically for illicit purposes (Wanna, 2018).
Conclusion
By analyzing the report it can be concluded that in Australia there are various types of corruption that take place like bribery, slush fund, and Electoral Fraud. It is important to reduce corruption in the country as it can help in economic growth and also give equality in the overall decisions. Therefore, to minimize it the focus should be given by the government on the above strategies so that economy can be maintained and activities can be conducted in a right direction.
References
Aldashev, G. and Mastrobuoni, G., 2016. Invalid Ballots and Electoral Competition. Political Science Research and Methods, pp.1-22.
Bartlett, A., 2015. Senate Inquiry into foreign bribery Why a good corporate culture is becoming increasingly paramount. Governance Directions, 67(11), p.668.
Brand, V., 2016. Still Insufficient or Irrelevant: Australia’s Foreign Bribery Corporate Whistleblowing Regulation. UNSWLJ, 39, p.1072.
Braun, S.S., 2016. Liberty, Political Rights and Wealth Transfer Taxation. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 33(4), pp.379-395.
Fehon, M., 2017. Implications of the proposed amendments to Australia’s foreign bribery laws. Governance Directions, 69(6), p.334.
Graycar, A., 2017. Corruption. In The Palgrave Handbook of Australian and New Zealand Criminology, Crime and Justice(pp. 251-267). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Griffiths, K., 2015. Criminalising bribery in a corporate world. Current Issues Crim. Just., 27, p.251.
Latimer, P., 2017. Anti-bribery laws–compliance issues in Australia. Journal of Financial Crime, 24(1), pp.4-16.
Maley, W. and Maley, M., 2016. Appraising electoral fraud: tensions and complexities. Conflict, Security & Development, 16(6), pp.653-671.
McAllister, I., 2014. Corruption and confidence in Australian political institutions. Australian Journal of Political Science, 49(2), pp.174-185.
Norris, P., 2017. Electoral integrity and electoral systems. In The Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems management.
Wanna, J., 2018. Government budgeting and the quest for value-for-money outcomes in Australia. Value for money, p.17.
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