Minimising Bribery and Corruption in the time of COVID-19

de Drago Kos, Sandrine Richard & James Wasserstrom

Though some saw a pandemic coming, no one was prepared for it and everyone worldwide is affected by it today. Politicians and healthcare professionals made mistakes at the outset, but that phase, with rare exceptions, is over. Some might have expected that we will be able to rely on high tech and medical knowledge and resources to respond to such challenges efficiently and in timely fashion, but instead we still rely on traditional but effective measures such as social distancing and quarantines.

The impact of the pandemic is influencing our lives so profoundly that some politicians have said we are at "war" against the virus. The number of casualties and the extraordinary size and scope of national resources needed to combat the "invisible enemy" makes the war metaphor resonate. But there are also other, less obvious markers of a wartime mentality: the lowering or suspension of existing democratic, legal, and ethical standards. Some basic functions of government, essential in peacetime, are downplayed or set aside. Two such activities are law enforcement and – especially - the suspension of less "urgent" criminality or non-violent crimes, such as bribery and corruption. It is a cliché that war brings out the best in a citizenry, but the other half of that axiom, often conveniently omitted to bolster a discouraged populace, is that it simultaneously brings out the worst. In this "war", the economic, social and political upheaval accompanying the disruption of normal times has brought, and will continue to bring out forms of bribery and corruption which are having and will continue to have harmful, possibly tragic consequences for many countries’ democratic, health and legal systems. This will be especially so in states where such achievements are fragile, under endogenous or exogenous attack already. In the tech world, profiting from “disruption” of the status quo is the objective; in the fight against COVID-19, "disruption" could lead to profiteering, and worse. "White collar crime" in normal times is often considered of lower priority than violent crime because it is less immediate and is mistakenly seen as "victimless" or that its victims are less needy of protection since they are not physically harmed. In the current "war", the theft of scarce resources needed to save lives both victimises and is violent. This note explores whether nations facing the coronavirus pandemic are also facing other risks, that are endangering the rule of law, public finance, and media freedom, and, in general, democratic society.

The note also describes options to help protect these pillars of our societies from themselves becoming hit by the pandemic