Claudia Baez CamargoClaudia Baez Camargo holds a PhD in political science from the University of Notre Dame, USA, and a graduate degree in economics from the University of Cambridge, England. She is Head of Governance Research at the Basel Institute on Governance/ University of Basel where she is responsible for the development, oversight, and management…
“Dasukigate.” “Cashgate.” “The Tageta Escrow Scandal.” With nicknames that belie their shocking scope and scale, high-level scandals like these have strained capacity and tested the integrity of anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria, Malawi, and Tanzania. These scandals also have exposed gaps in conventional narratives surrounding these countries’ corruption investigations and prosecutions that paint them as anemic,…
Effective governance is essential for economic development. Civil servants that are motivated to work hard, serve the public interest, and refrain from engaging in corruption are the cornerstone of effective governance. Yet, even if it is widely accepted that the civil service is a critical area of public sector reform, we lack robust evidence on…
Citizens in developing countries depend on the state to provide public services, either due to an absence of market provision or because of poverty (Afridi, 2017). Despite the importance of these services, some of the largest opportunities for corruption arise in public service delivery, e.g., in bribes from beneficiaries or procurement contracts. Leakages of funds…
In most of the world, anti-corruption strategies are based on detecting and punishing corrupt acts, for example: Risk management strategies predict the misuse of public funds; Reporting platforms allow citizens to report on corrupt acts; Whistleblower protections encourage oversight of corruption by officials and the public; High-level campaigns target corrupt officials; Yet, the evidence that these strategies are effective at curbing…
In 2007, participants at the 6th National Seminar on Economic Crime in Abuja, Nigeria, were informed that some US$400 billion was estimated to have been stolen from public accounts in Nigeria over a 40-year period (Chatham House Report 2017). More recently, some US$32 billion ‘was lost to corruption’ during the six-year presidency of Goodluck Jonathan that ended…