CHAOTIC CORRUPTION & ORGANIZED GREASING OF PALMS

. Available indices of corruption are general and do not distinguish between high-level corruption such as a Defense Minister receiving kickbacks in exchange for purchase of armaments and low-level graft paid to a junior civil servant for expediting a driver's license.

Transparency is a legitimate concern of democracy. The people have the right to know how decisions that affect them are are arrived at, by whom and under what circumstances; how public resources are administered, by whom and why.

Nor do they distinguish between well-organized greasing of wheels and chaotic corruption. In well-organized graft entrepreneurs know the person or group they need to bribe and how much to offer them, and are confident that they will obtain the necessary permits for their corporations.

It has also been argued that well-organized corruption is less harmful because, under such a system, a corrupt bureaucrat will take a clearly-defined share of a firm's profits, which gives him an interest in the success of the firm.

In contrast, under chaotic corruption, entrepreneurs may need to bribe several officials, but with no guarantee that they will not face further demands for bribes or that the permits they seek will actually be delivered. In addition, if multiple agents request bribes from the same entrepreneur without coordinating bribe themselves, they are likely to make excessive demands with the result that entrepreneurial activity comes to a halt.

While chaotic corruption seems to be more harmful than well-organized corruption, there is currently little data available to test the theory.

Many countries and institutions have paid increasing attention to the problem of corruption, and the debate on policy options is an on-going process. In deciding how to allocate funds some lending institutions and donor states have begun to give more attention to borrower countries' actions to curb corruption.

Member-states of the Otganization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD - the rich nations' club) have acted to criminalize the bribery of foreigm public officials. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank insist on countries that they should liberlise their economies, for example, by eliminating trade restrictions, terminate off-budget operations and ensure transparency.

One of the most difficult policy issues is how to prevent corruption from distorting government expenditure. A possible approach that has been suggested is to have an international institution monitor the overall composition of government expenditure, as a service to citizens of a country which receives financial assistance and the lenders such as the World Bank and so on.

Transparency is a guarantee of good governance because maladministration shuns the light and prefers obscurity. The promotion of good governance involves a determined campaign against corruption at all levels.