The Role of Legislatures in Building the National Integrity System for Combating Corruption

Corruption has become an issue of major political and economical significance in recent years. This has led to a resurgence of interest in analyzing the phenomenon in the diverse forms that it assumes within developing countries with an expectation that democratization and economic liberalization offer potential routes to dealing with the problem.1 As our newspapers and news broadcasts remind us daily, corruption in many countries today must be confronted as a matter of urgency, and often as a prelude to economic growth and international trade.2 Corruption is detrimental to both social as well as economic health and well being whenever and wherever it occurs, regardless of the state of a country’s development.3 Reports of corruption are increasing daily. This clearly suggests that, despite efforts in many parts of the world to contain it, corruption may actually be increasing.4 It also demonstrates that it is not something that is exclusively, or even primarily, a problem of developing countries.5 An elected national Parliament or Legislature is a fundamental pillar of any integrity system based on democratic accountability and has a very important role in combating corruption. Its task, simply stated, is: to express the sovereign will of the people through their chosen representatives, who, on their behalf, hold the Executive accountable on a day-to-day basis. Likewise, a government gains its legitimacy from having won a mandate from the people. The way in which this mandate is won is crucial to the quality of that legitimacy, and to the readiness of the citizens at home and governments abroad to accept it. The modern Parliament as a watchdog, regulator and representative, is at the centre of the struggle to attain and sustain good governance and to fight corruption to be fully effective in these roles. Parliament must be comprised of individuals of integrity. If seen as a collection of rogues who have bought, bribed, cajoled and rigged themselves into positions of power, a Parliament forfeits whatever respect it might otherwise have enjoyed, and effectively disables itself from promoting good governance and minimizing corruption- -even if it wants to do so. There will always be people trying to enter politics for the wrong reasons, in the pursuit of personal power and self-interest, and devoid of any real commitment to serve the public. These constitute a fundamental challenge to any integrity system, and special attention is needed if they are to be denied the space to achieve their illegitimate ends. The premise of this article is to examine corruption and ethics and to pay a special attention to building a national integration system in combating the corruption.