NCJ Number
155350
Journal
Crime, Law and Social Change Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Dated: (1994/95) Pages: 391-414
Date Published
1995
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This comparative study examines strategies for countering public corruption in the city-states of Singapore and Hong Kong.
Abstract
The first two sections focus on the anti-corruption strategies adopted by both city-states, with a focus on the legislative and institutional measures. Since corruption was a way of life in Singapore in 1959, the newly elected leaders realized the need to curb the serious problem of corruption in the Singapore Civil Service to enable it to contribute to national development by promoting meritocracy and improving the use of human resources. Although Hong Kong's approach to public corruption is based somewhat on Singapore's experience, it is less comprehensive, since the former focuses only on reducing the opportunities for corruption and does not emphasize the reduction of the incentive for corruption. The third section discusses the similarities and differences in the anticorruption strategies and evaluates their effectiveness. The final section identifies the six lessons that other countries can learn from the experiences of Singapore and Hong Kong in curbing corruption. One of the lessons is that the political leadership must be sincerely committed to the eradication of corruption. The second lesson is that it is futile to combat corruption by using incremental or piecemeal measures. A third lesson is that the anticorruption agency must itself be incorruptible. Also, the anticorruption agency must be removed from the police as soon as possible, since its location within the police prevents it from functioning effectively, especially when the police are corrupt. The fifth lesson is that it is necessary to reduce the opportunities for corruption, especially in those governmental departments that are usually vulnerable to corrupt activities. Lesson number six is that it is important to reduce the incentive for corruption among civil servants and political leaders by ensuring that their salaries and fringe benefits are competitive with the private sector. In sum, the experiences of Singapore and Hong Kong in controlling corruption show that it is possible to minimize corruption if there is a strong political will. 84 notes and 2 appended tables