ETHICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE CHALLENGES
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ifficult to control corruption across the world, especially with regard to d developing countries and emerging economies. These countries depend on the investment from the developed countries for economic development, since they have large numbers of unemployed people. The governments face the enormous challenge of providing employment to the people. Foreign investment plays a crucial role in employing these people, and in its absence there may well be serious threats to political and economic stability.
Privatization Movement and Ethics Globalization, along with the advocacy of the New Public Management program, popularized the idea of privatization as a means to reduce costs and improve efficiency. One of the key questions is whether or not privatization reduces corruption. It is possible that privatization can reduce the scope of government intervention, thereby limiting the opportunities for corruption. Manzetti (1999) claims that although privatization has reduced the potential for corruption in the public sector, it also created several other problems, including a lack of transparency. However, the policies of privatization and contracting out have also created additional opportunities for unethical and corrupt behavior. Corrupt businesses can bribe the officials to get the contract. Contracts are sometimes awarded to businesses in which government officials have an investment. Most of the time, those with political connections have secured the bid for government contracts (Nellis and Kikeri 1989). Some of the countries do not have strict laws regulating the conflict of interest. On many occasions, government officials or ministers are in charge of contracting and therefore enjoy discretion in terms of awarding the contract to their own businesses. On many other occasions, the bureaucrats may not own any business, but will instead receive bribes as a reward for awarding the contract to their favored companies. This means that the officials can make money from the process without having to make any investment in business. The awardees of the contract, in their desire to make profits, provide low-quality services further undermining the efficiency. The contracting companies feel the necessity not only to recover the money they have paid as bribes, but also to profit substantially from their investments. As a result, they resort to the use of inferior materials. There are many stories of bridge and building collapses as a result of the use of poor-quality work. Private companies can use bribes to receive government contracts. The
