In the last couple of years, there have been a few high-profile corruption investigations and prosecutions in Singapore. Former Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) Assistant Director Edwin Yeo Seow Hiong misappropriated funds issued to the branch he headed within the bureau to fuel his gambling habit. For 15 years, Edwin served the bureau, eventually becoming the Head of Field Research and Technical Support. He made 372 trips to the casinos over two-and-a-half years, losing at least S$478,583 at Resorts World Sentosa and Marina Bay Sands between April 2010 and September 2012. From 2008 to 2012, he lost S$263,699 through betting with Singapore Pools. Yeo was head of the CPIB’s Field Research and Technical Support (FRTS). His illegal …show more content…
For each sum of money Yeo misappropriated, he would cover up the missing funds using the next sum of cash available. This was because the earlier funds had been spent on his personal debts and expenses. He also asked his staff to negotiate with vendors for delayed payment of sums owed to them. Yeo had gone against the management’s instruction to have two people authorizing transactions for an FRTS bank account. He applied for Internet banking facilities, which allowed online transactions to be carried out using a single Internet banking token, and transferred S$470,265 from the account into his personal account between May and August 2012. He edited a voucher documenting payment to trick CPIB Assistant Director of Administration and Support Sze Chinyu into thinking payment had been made to an equipment supplier. In total, Yeo misappropriated S$1.76 million, of which S$1.64 million has not been repaid (Cuellar, …show more content…
The recent active investigations and prosecutions of sex-for-benefit corruptions in Singapore suggest the enforcement agencies’ readiness to deal with corruption in all forms. That said, it does not mean that the CPIB would only be interested in investigating “big” cases involving public officials or substantial amounts. As consistently emphasized by the CPIB, “no case is too small to investigate”, and it is expected that the CPIB will continue to watch closely both the demand (the recipients) and supply (the givers) sides of bribery, regardless of the amount of bribery or the stance of the corrupted (Quah,
Serpico (1973) is a movie that reveals the true story of Frank Serpico who was the only honest cop in the New York police sector at his time. The film shows the realistic view of the corruption that was evidenced in the New York police and highlights the character of Frank as being honest and courageous. Although he started as an inexperienced cop, he later worked as an undercover officer and was determined to bust all the criminal activities especially the drug dealers and pushers. Unlike the other cops, Serpico refused to take any bribes from the wrongdoers. More so, he felt that the other officers were doing wrong by accepting bribes and wanted to expose the situation. The other officers were so corrupt that they collected more money through bribes than the salary they earned, a situation that did not please Serpico. His strong stand concerning corruption made his friends turn against him, placing his life in danger. The anti-corruption efforts of Serpico jeopardized his life at the hands of his colleagues. He was later transferred to the Narcotics Squad where he was shot by a drug dealer after his partners betrayed him by failing to support him. The cop was then rushed to hospital. The shooting made Frank deaf since it affected the brain, rendering
When dealing with corruption, first question to ask or to clarify is what corruption is. NSW Research (2002) describes corruption anything from gaining materialistically by virtue of position (for eg. getting a special discount at stores) to engaging in ‘direct criminal activities’ (eg. selling drugs). Newburn (1999) believes that there is a thin line between the definition of ‘corrupt’ and ‘non-corrupt’ activities as at the end, it is an ethical problem. For common people, however, bribery generalises corruption.
Corruption is an individual and institutional process where there is a gain by a public official from a briber and in return receives a service. Between the gain and the service, there is an improper connection, (Thompson p.28). The two major categories of bribery is individual and institutional corruption. Receiving personal goods for the pursuit of one’s own benefit is personal fraud. An example of individual distortion is the financial scandal involving David Durenberger. Organizational corruption involves “receiving goods that are useable primarily in the political process and are necessary for doing a job or are essential by-products of doing it,” (Thompson p.30). An instance of institutional fraud is the Keating Five case. There are also times where there is a mixture of both individual and organizational corruption in a scandal. An example of this diverse combination is James C. Wright Jr. actions while he was the Speaker of the House.
Many people know about or have witnessed this corruption taking place and numerous attempts to rid of it have been made. It is not an easy task attempting to bring justice to where justice should be made. There ...
The development of a country depends generally on the work and values of its society. The image of a country can be severely damaged by certain actions and behavior of their citizens, like bribery. When a country is known as a corrupt nation, not only will the facade of the country be affected, but also the economy. Establishing measures to eradicate corruption are urgently necessary. Corruption has been around since the begging of time, but currently is more common in business, more specifically, international business. Although some organizations have been formed, and conventions have been signed in order to end it, corruption is still one of the mayor problems around the world. An ethical view might bring more insight to why bribery and corruption is not a moral act and why more severe measures should be taken into consideration.
Bribery occurs when money, services, goods, information, or anything else of value is offered with intent to influence a person’s actions, decisions, or opinions of the accuser. Charges can be brought against an individual, whether they offered the bribe or accept it. Bribery and public corruption cases frequently make headlines new stories daily. Bribes can take the forms of gifts or payments of money in exchange for favorable treatment like awards of government contracts (Mince-Didler, n.d.). Government officials tend to gain a huge incentive with bribery while serving their term. Other forms of bribes may include privileges, services, various goods, property and favors. Bribes are always intended to influence or alter the actions of individuals with political and public corruption (Mince-Didler, n.d.).
Bribery poses difficulties on moral grounds because it is incompatible with the principal of human equality and the fundamental right for individuals to be treated with equal respect and concern. For an institution to adhere to this principle, they must operate with fairness and impartiality: nobody should have access to influence that is not accessible to all. Bribery operates as part of a mechanism by which influence is only available ...
Corruption in law enforcement has been a nationwide problem for many years. Not only is corruption held in one level of law enforcement, but throughout the three levels including the state, local and federal. The formation of the first police departments were the model by the early english society. The early years of policing began to contribute various forms of misconduct from police officers. Soon thereafter, Sir Robert peel established early modern policing which influenced the colonial america policing to the english society. Yet, even after following the model of other countries of law enforcement, Colonial America corruption still continued. In the mid 1800's, corruption continued to widely affect society as a whole. It was until August Vollmer, who marked the contribution of professionalism to policing, that a notable difference began to diminish corruption. Misconduct occurs at all policing levels and continues to spread worldwide. The most common types of corruption are bribes, kickbacks, shakedowns, opportunistic theft, physical abuse, protection of illegal activities and physical abuse. These types of corruption are seen throughout all levels of law enforcement. Corruption is more prominent among higher ranking officers. Not only is misconduct found among those holding higher positions, but it is also seen in rookies who are just entering law enforcement. Corruption is induced not only from individual corrupt officers or chiefs, but occurs as a result of inadequate leadership structures and administrative policies. Eliminating reducing misconduct must be done by demonstrating integrity, better organization within the policies, stricter recruitment and training.
Police corruption has been around since the creation of law enforcement because “the very nature of the police function is bound to subject officers to tempting offers” (Dempsey & Forst, 2016, p. 234). Police officers have an enormous amount of autonomy and discretion when it comes to enforcing the laws and how they interact with the general public. The “rotten apple” reason is probably the most widely publicized and given as the reason for police corruption within a department because every department has had one. It seems to be an easy explanation to the community in order to mitigate scrutiny and deflect blame on one or so dirty cops. Social structure also plays a part in police corruption across the United States.
Some people said that corruption is rampant in all governments, So that it is not unknown to any ethnic group, region and continent. It cuts across faiths, political systems, religious Denominations and affects both young and old people. Fraud can be found in public and authoritarian rule;...
Bribery is wrong, and it would be almost instinctive to point at the benefits of impartially functioning public servants and incorrupt corporations to our democratic society as justification. However, in this imperfect world where bribery is rife in varying degrees, is it possible to express this notion convincingly? Certainly 'because the UK Bribery Act says so' is far less persuasive to a council planning office in Shanghai than in London, and indeed in compliance with section 7 of the Bribery Act 2010 which relates to commercial offences, it is essential that this question is engaged with on a corporate scale and without assertion through dogma. Accordingly, this essay will argue that elements wrong with bribery are inclusive of both moral and economic considerations. Moreover, in conjunction with international mandates, advent of aggressive legislation such as that of the UK Bribery Act 2010 is representative of global efforts to eliminate bribery. Hence, it follows that bribery can never be considered a normal part of business because it is economically unsustainable in the long term.
This essay will attempt to explore the relationship between the two from the definitions, causes, consequences and the solutions. Corruption can be defined as the abuse of public power for private gain. (World Bank, 2004) Corruption is attracting a lot of attention around the world, and is a growing international and regional concern. According to Corruption Around the world (Tanzi, 1998), in its end-of-year editorial on December 31, 1995, The Financial Times characterized 1995 as the year of corruption.
The existence of bribery and unethical behavior is rampant in the world market and may not change overnight. The question of bribery has been distilled in business literature as a question of ethics. In this situation at the airport with the customs officer, it is important to distinguish between business ethics and personal ethics. In a business ethics situation, the Foreign Corruption Practices Act would prohibit offering any bribe to the custom office – for example to free a shipment of goods that was lost in red tape (Pitman & Sanford, 2006). Most companies also have policies against bribery as well. In this situation, however the main issue at hand is that of personal ethics. When in a situation where your company is unknown and there is no business being conducted, normal business ethics and laws (including FCPA) do not apply only personal ethical standards.
SANDU, A., & NIŢU, M. (2013). CORRUPTION AND ORGANIZED CRIME. Contemporary Readings In Law & Social Justice, 5(2), 454-460.
Government officials trusted by the people are nowadays the ones involved in the major issue in the country which is Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) Scam, or the pork-barre...