Corruption can be defined as the use of public office for private gain, or in other words, use of official position, rank or status by an office bearer for his own personal benefit. Following from this definition, examples of corrupt behavior would include:
· Bribery
· Extortion
· Fraud
· Embezzlement
· Nepotism
· Cronyism
· Appropriation of public assets and property for private use
· Influence peddling
In this list of corrupt behavior, activities such as fraud and embezzlement can be undertaken by an official alone and without involvement of a second party. While others such as bribery, extortion and influence peddling involve two parties – the giver and taker in a corrupt deal. The two party type of corruption can arise under a variety of circumstances. Often mentioned are concerned with the following:
· Government contracts – briBes can influence who gets the contract, the terms of the contract, as well as terms of subcontracts when the project is implemented
· Government benefits – bribes can influence the allocation of monetary benefits such as credit subsidies and favoured prices and exchange rates where price controls and multiple exchange rates exist. Bribes can also be important in obtaining licenses and permits to engage in lucrative economic activities such as importing certain goods in high demand and in short supply. Moreover, bribes can be employed to acquire in-king benefits such as access to privileged schools, subsidized medical care, subsidized housing and real estate, and attractive ownership stakes in enterprises that are being privatized.
· Government revenue – bribes can be used to reduce the amount of taxes, fees, custom duties, and electricity and other public utility charges collected from business firms and private individuals.
· Time savings and regulatory avoidance – bribes can speed up the granting of permission, licenses and permits to carry out activities that are perfectly legal. This is the so-called “grease money” to turn the wheels of bureaucracy more smoothly, speedily and hopefully in the right direction.
· Influencing outcomes of legal and regulatory processes – bribes can be used to provide incentives to regulatory authorities to refrain from taking action, and to look the other way, when private parties engage in activities that are in violation of existing pollution, preventing health hazards, or promoting public safety as in the case of building codes and traffic regulations.
Methodology
The planned methodology is secondary research. The researcher will make use of published materials such as books, magazines and newspapers to collect data and information regarding the topic. The researcher will also make use of the internet to obtain information about the company such as its background and other related information. For the research, the researcher will mainly rely on secondary data in obtaining the information. Due to inaccessibility of the subject or the case study, other research methods are not applicable. Secondary data are data that have been collected for some other purpose. Secondary data can provide a useful source from which to answer the research question(s). Punch (1998) mentions several advantages of using existing data. Expenditure on obtaining data can be significantly reduced and data analysis can begin immediately, so saving time. Also, the quality of some data may be superior to anything the researcher could have created alone (Thomas, 2004, p. 191). On the other hand, the chosen research method also has several disadvantages. Data that have been gathered by others for their own purposes can be difficult to interpret when they are taken out of their original context. It is also much more difficult to appreciate the weak points in data that have been obtained by others. The data may be only partially relevant to the current research question (Thomas, 2004, p. 191).
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