Thread by @royaljosh

@DrJoeAbah's #GovernancePuzzles on corruption got me thinking. Soon, I watched @EfosaOjomo Ted Talks on corruption where he posits brilliantly that investments would prove an antidote to the panacea of corruption.

Here's my take. To overcome the problem of corruption creatively, countries must take a proactive approach, looking to prevent it rather than waiting for the deeds to occur. For starters, we must define corruption and clearly lay out its parameters else we would be everywhere.

I'm limiting my scope to: bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence peddling, and embezzlement.

I agree with @EfosaOjomo in saying that scarcity is a contributor. However, justice cannot be commercialized nor privatized to provide surplus.

Where does corruption occur and why? Study those instances and prevent them with a sustainable system. For instance, company registration is fraught with a lot of hiccups leading to touts and fraudsters taking over the place.

Get the list of companies into an online database. This eliminates the need for manual search & availability and presents a revenue opportunity. Make the registration process online as well. Submission of files/compliance offline. This takes away 85% of the corruption.

Further, you need strong institutions which Hodgson defines as: "integrated systems of rules that structure social interactions".

Institutions have to be strong and inclusive. Sorry strong men apologists, your men are not strong enough.

Strong institutions prevents considerably against abuse of power, cronyism, influence peddling etc. Of course there would be exceptions and loopholes even in America. Ludlum once said: there is no perfect system because someone is always trying to rile it up.

But to the extent that it is manageable or bearable, the institutions change, strengthening and proactive approach would for me be a better fit. Investors would only risk an investment insofar as capital is assured and a certainty of some profit.

Anything less would be gambling. Investments to create surplus is a great idea and would work in economic instances, but would suffer in governance, justice, education, contract award process, appointments and more instances. Summarily, I present that:

To fight corruption, we define it, identify where it occurs, create systems to prevent it. Monitor it for loopholes and amend, create systems to punish those who exploit the loopholes. Keep the process agile.
I hope I have made a good contribution @DrJoeAbah
#GovernancePuzzles