- Other Issues
- January 25, 2011
- 2 minutes read
SCC: Political Corruption Impact of Central Government Corruption
A recent report by the Social Contract Centre (SCC), an affiliate of the Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Centre, has noted that there are types of political corruption, like large-scale corruption by top leaders and senior officials, pointing out that this kind is often due to widespread corruption in the central government, represented by irregularities committed by political forces against rules and regulations governing political action in the State in order to illegally stay in power, as well as to repress the opposition.
The study said: «Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption».
According to the Social Contract Centre, the second type is administrative corruption, which is defined as "the institutionalized personal abuse of public resources by civil servants for political gains like bribes that are given personally to a government official in exchange of his use of official powers".
The study showed that corruption has a negative impact on political, economic and social development, which in turn, undermines the legitimacy of the government, loss of a sense of citizenship, belonging and calls into question the democracy adopted by the system.
At the economic level, corruption repels foreign investment, bringing about slow or no growth. It also reduces domestic capital, renders the system unable to provide employment opportunities, and causes widespread unemployment, and poverty, as well as encourages distortion-inspired businesses due to changes in government spending, waste of public funds in health, education, utilities, and loosens moral values and a sense of injustice».