The context of corruption and misconduct
Misconduct and corrupt behaviours in local government can be perpetrated by the councillors, the leadership team of the council, the staff against the interests of the council, external parties outside of the council, and/or a combination of the four groups.2 The question of why does this happen and in what circumstances can
it happen, can be an imponderable and potentially unanswerable question. There can be multiple answers, with each of them specific to the organisational culture of the councils in which the behaviours have occurred, rather than having some type of forecasting tool which can predict incidences of corruption.
Gobert and Punch3 stated that there is no “single variable theory of [corruption and misconduct]”, but argued instead for a multi-causal explanation with contingent, situational factors playing an important role in individual cases.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC 1998) reviewed the literature pertaining to corruption and misconduct, and stated that there are inherent risk factors which can: (1) enable or optimise corruption and misconduct and (2) aid in the perpetration of the corruption and misconduct.
Punch4 succinctly summarised the context of corruption and misconduct in the following way:
“The only responsibility of business is to make profit – illegally if necessary, and the business of business is crime.” ... CLICK HERE TO READ MORE
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