CORRUPTION AND INTEGRITY

What is corruption? And what does it have to do with integrity?

Transparency International defines corruption as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.

Corruption is widespread. It hurts everyone whose life, livelihood or happiness depends on the integrity of people in a position of authority.

So, it affects us individually and collectively. The watchdogs and whistleblowers are doing their part but the real question is why, other than getting angry or disappointed, do we do nothing about the corruption in our lives? 

Transparency International conducts an annual Corruption Perception Index that seeks the public’s attitudes across the world toward the extent that they believe corruption pervades public institutions and their sense of how the fight against corruption will fare in the future.

Denmark, Sweden, and New Zealand are perceived as the being the least corrupt countries with Somalia being considered the most corrupt at 180^th.  Canada is ranked as 9^th, the United Kingdom is 16^th, the USA is 18^th and China is 72^nd.

According to the survey approximately 60% of the respondents believe that political parties and the government are the most corrupt aspects of society. Approximately 59% of Americans believe corruption will increase while 53% believe that the government’s efforts to fight corruption are ineffective.

To verify this concept, I identified the following story lines in one city newspaper (the Augusta Chronicle) on one day – Saturday March 7, 2009:

1. A former state senator was ordered to pay restitution payments of $500,000 for his 2005 conviction of 127 accounts of fraud, conspiracy, and tax crimes.

2. Approximately 10% of the Georgia state legislature or 22 elected officials are considered by the Department of Revenue to be tax evaders.

3. President Obama’s appointees Nancy Killefer and Senator Tom Daschle bowed out their administration positions because of unpaid taxes while Timothy Geithner, in spite of not paying taxes for several years, accepted a position as the Treasury Secretary.
4. An ex NASA chief was indicted for steering $9.6 million in agency funds to a consulting client that was paying him as a consultant.
5. A county prosecutor requested FBI tapes between Senator Roland Burris and ousted Governor Rod Blagojevich’s family to explore the possibility of perjury charges.
6. A charity food board has alleged that the founders of the charity have enriched themselves of at least $2.7 million and directed $600,000 as a housing allowance.
7. Some damaged FEMA trailers that were sold as scrap and unfit for human habitation have shown  up in trailer parks , marked with tags proclaiming FEMA fitness for use.
8. A prominent US congressman’s relatives were employed by a program to which he steered funds as a member of the influential appropriations committee.
9. Finally the $32 billion in earmarks accompanying the $410 Billion stimulus program was mentioned.         

My point is not to stimulate anger, hurt or a feeling of injustice in you. Nor is it to condemn the people, government or system.  We all get hurt by corruption –some more than others. Some get caught, some do not.

The key question I want to address is why is it that we do nothing about corruption?

Peter Vajda in his article  Pointing Fingers  points out our obsession with stoning people who get caught. He warns, however, that as we point our finger at others, we must be careful because we have three fingers pointing back at us.

He goes on to draw to our attention all the little things that we do in our lives that manifest corruption. Each of has a certain amount of entrusted power –either at work, at home or at play and each of us abuse this power at some point in our lives. This, according to Vajda, creates a snowball effect in society that becomes an avalanche.  Vajda cautions us to remember that no single snowflake ever takes responsibility for an avalanche.  

Integrity is wholeness, unfolding and objectivity.

Wholeness is completeness. That includes the good and the bad. Every one of us, manifest both good and bad. I suspect the lawbreakers are, for the most part, good people who allowed their own private gain to supersede the power they were given. They are being punished.

Integrity is also unfolding. This is the key to why we do nothing. It all starts with simple lies and deceit that go undetected and serve our private gain. As we learn through trail and error what works and what does not, we gradually commit to a slippery path of deceit and abuse that eventually swallows us and for the most part goes undetected, except by ourselves.   

We don’t get up in the morning and declare all our transgressions against others and ourselves. That would be depressing. We justify our current actions, ignore our past actions, explore distractions and/or seek to be good in order to cover up what lies within.

The reason we do nothing about corruption is that it is virtually impossible to admit corruption to ourselves.    

It doesn’t have to be that way. The third part of integrity is objectivity or purity. That is the goal. Our actions are the pathway. No one is perfect. We each have corruption and we each have integrity.

The choice we have reminds me of the Native American story of the two wolves.

One evening an old chief told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, 'My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all.

One is evil: It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is good: It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

The young grandson thought about this for a minute or two and then asked his grandfather..... “Which wolf wins?”

The old chief replied simply..... “The one you feed!”

 

Want to learn more?  Contact me at douglasross@principledynamics.com . I want to speak to you about integrity and how it can help you and all of us.

Douglas Ross is an advocate for the promotion of integrity as a strategy for performance.  

© 2009 All Rights Reserved, Douglas Ross, Principle Dynamics Consulting Inc. and Kira X. Goettling, Ethical Thinking Harbors Its Creative Solutions ^™