Ethical Implications with Corruption - Essay Example

s Ethical Implications Ethical Implications with CORRUPTION 5/11/2009 Keywords: Corruption in the UAE Ethical problems withcorruption Trade-offs within corruption Corruption Issues in the Emirates Ethical Implications with Corruption State of the Art 1. “Ethics, Corruption, and Economic Freedom” (Eiras, 2003) Authored by Ana Eiras, the article basically discusses the ethical issues that deal with corruption with reference to the issue of Economic Freedom; the author tries to convince the audience that the issue of Economic freedom may be a cause for corruption. Fundamentally, the lack of government’s bureaucratic force over several economical factors is termed as economic freedom; therefore the author has tried to convince the audiences that whenever any government tries to put too much pressure on the economical well being, like increasing the tax rates drastically, or placing heavy import duties on raw materials essential for a company to prosper, the public looks at ways to save themselves and their insecurities, and the way to do that is to elevate corruption, thereby, the government is being held responsible for this atrocity(Eiras, 2003). The author has also used some of her own secondary research in the form of comparative qualitative charts, a couple of which are as follows: Figure 1: Economic Freedom/Corruption1 (Eiras, 2003) Figure 2: ECONOMIC FREEDOM/CORRUPTION2 (Eiras, 2003) 2. “Ethics or Corruption” (Kavran, et al., N.D.) Dr. Dragoljub Kavran and Dr. Sherman M. Wyman, spokespersons for the UNO have raised superb questions about the issue at hand. The authors state that corruption is above even the harshest levels in many developing and under developed economies; mostly, the authors blame the poor political and legal systems for these circumstances, the author also blames politicians who use their own laws for personal benefits rather than those of the populace. This issue has reached far out of hand and even some of the most developed economies such as the UAE and the US face diminutive levels of corruption. Within this 20 page whitepaper, the authors have raised the issue of ‘patience’, or in this particular situation: The wait-and-watch experimentation scenario. The authors believe the within such weak economic conditions, corruption may also be seen as a way to overcome several problems faced by the economies within under developed countries, but this is a commonly rejected principle and the fact still persists which looks at corruption as an evil element. (Kavran, et al., N.D.) 3. “Mercks Dubai Ethics Center” (Stier, 2007) Even though this article is inclusive of rich content about the public service organization Ethics resource center, this also includes the chief ethical issues about the corruption problem within Dubai. The chief ethical issue is ‘ignorance’, “If you are a deputy minister you dont it see as a problem to purchase from a dealer that could be your cousin” (Stier, 2007), this context from the authors article explains it all, the politicians must understand their ethical implications towards and for the nation, and be very stern about such events which may raise several questions against their goodwill. (Stier, 2007) Another view towards this issue may be the fact that the politician is not actually condemning corruption, but some fingers might be raised against him, so shall he or shall he not give his cousin a chance if there may not be any sort of corruption involved within the transaction? 4. “Corruption scandal rocks Dubai” (Heyer, 2008) Corruption is a seldom heard word in the emirates, but the unfortunate real estate corruption ring headed by the infamy Abdulla Nasser Abdulla (Deputy CEO, Tamweel’s) was like a huge blow to the government, as this hit at a time when the world’s economies were very volatile and this hit the markets hard. It is only fair that such an incident be discussed within this term paper so as to remain fair in terms of conclusion which may include views from the Emirates angle. Some economists strongly believe that such an incident could not tamper much with the inflow of foreign investments… is this really true, would you personally like to invest in a country after such a story has been leaked? Qualitative Questionnaire 1. Do you feel that corruption is becoming a huge problem with developed economies? 2. Can corruption at apex levels be brought under control? 3. What, according to you, is the real cause of corruption? Wicked Politicians, ignorance, poor political and legal systems, or lack of economic freedom. 4. Do you feel that corruption should be measured with ethicalness as the scale? 5. Can you point out some situations where corruption might be good? 6. If you are in a situation where you get the opportunity to get a particular task done within just 40% of its actual cost (the task would be off the records), would you personally condemn corruption under these circumstances? 7. If any politician tries to forward some work to his relative with no personal interest, would you consider the politician to be corrupt? 8. Is corruption always bad? 9. Does the news of a corruption scandal affect the interest and investments of that particular country? 10. Ethically considering: Who is really the culprit which should be blamed for corruption, the officer that demands black money or the person that agrees to give him the money without complaining or bad mouthing the officer? Summarizing the Interview The interviewees were: 1. Mr. Wael Elhendawy, Junior Officer-Sales @ ADCB, Dubai 2. Mr. Maxwell Cornwallis, CSR, Viasystems Group, Inc. Winsconsin Basically, the views on corruption by both the residents of a developed economy were more or less the same, even the ethical implications were analogous. Both believed that the politician giving the job to his own cousin would be deemed as a culprit as he is helping his cousin earn and even if he has no fiscal interest within the transaction, he does have emotional interest. The second ethical implication about the public vs. corrupt officer is a tie as Wael favored for the public, whereas Mr. Cornwallis blamed the public; this exaggerates the views amongst the populace in the two giants. Although, these views cannot be dwelled upon as qualitative analysis has its own limitations against quantitative analysis. Another problem with the analysis was that the “would you” question was biased and the answer may not be considered, the third problem being, the respondents were not able to answer the question about the impact of corruption on the financial well being of an economy (Q 9). Conclusion Personally, the morality of corruption issue sounds a bit unrealistic. When we talk about corruption, there is no morality unlike some of our very eminent authors suggested, corruption is a social evil and no good can ever be achieved through this atrocity. The strictest punishment should be allotted for corruption and as the authors Dr. Dragoljub Kavran and Dr. Sherman M. Wyman suggested, every country should have a separate department for auditing government’s funds and regulating corruption within the public as well as private segments. Works Cited Eiras, Ana Isabel. 2003. Ethics, Corruption, and Economic Freedom. heritage.org. [Online] The Heritage Foundation, December 9, 2003. [Cited: May 11, 2009.] http://www.heritage.org/research/tradeandeconomicfreedom/hl813.cfm. Heyer, Hazel. 2008. Corruption scandal rocks Dubai. ETN. [Online] eTurboNews, Inc., September 17, 2008. [Cited: May 11, 2009.] http://www.eturbonews.com/5055/corruption-scandal-rocks-dubai. Kavran, Dragoljub and Wyman, Sherman M. N.D.. ETHICS OR CORRUPTION? Building a Landscape for Ethics Training in Southeastern Europe. United Nations. [Online] UNO, N.D. [Cited: May 11, 2009.] http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/untc/unpan003965.pdf. Stier, Ken. 2007. Mercks Dubai Ethics Center. Policy Innovations. [Online] Policy Innovations - The Carnegie Councils online magazine , December 10, 2007. [Cited: May 11, 2009.] http://www.policyinnovations.org/ideas/innovations/data/DERC. Read More