Hello Hive Communities! How are you doing today? I hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. Thanks to the Hive Learners Community for another content to expand and share our knowledge about bribery and corruption. This topic serves to address a major issue in our world today - governance and responsible citizenship.
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Corruption is an act of dishonesty, fraud or criminal offense. The thing we often think of when corruption is talked about is government officials who abuse public power for personal gain. But corruption can be found in any organization, not only government. Common examples of corruption in my country include giving and accepting bribes/"gifts", manipulating or embezzling/diverting tax and other funds (especially crisis funds), laundering money, influencing judicial decisions or elections.
According to Transparency International, the Philippines scored a sad 33 in 2021 on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI). In 2020 the score was 34. The CPI rates countries on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean), meaning the perceived levels of public sector corruption are high. Globally, the Philippines ranked #117 in 2021, a drop of 2 places from the previous year. Although the difference is small, our country is moving in the wrong direction.
Corruption is making the lives of ordinary people poorer because the budget allocated for their needs was diverting to someone or something else - but these losses are hard to trace. There is a serious impact in our education -lack of education supplies, lack of classrooms, so many students have to fit in one classroom and one teacher is responsible for many students it is hard to do a good job. Public school students all experienced shortage of textbooks, lack of equipment/tools in science class, fewer computers than expected so only first section students have access to the new technology. Despite budget provisions, public school students regularly have to do without. Because education is so important for future productivity and success, diversion of educational funds is crippling our country not just now, but when the current generation of students joins the work force as well.
Values is one of our school subjects. It teaches us to to keep our dignity and right principles and proper conduct in everything we do. I think we all know that voting is a right for everyone, for free. Yet vote buying is very common in the Philippines - many voters accept payments for their vote. However, when they accept payment for something that is supposed to be a free service, they should understand that the officials elect will also expect extra money to do their job.
I conclude that corruption is normal in my culture. It's true that some people are willing to benefit themselves by taking from those who need it more. We should be watchful to know when only part of the budget was spent as budgeted because when the records are hidden, we all suffer. Public budgets should be available publicly and when we expose losses, we can expel corrupt officials. Change will not start with corrupt officials, it needs to start with us, ordinary citizens, doing our civic duties freely and giving our time to vote and serve our country. We should be vigilant about what should happen and actually happens in our communities - and support those who serve with integrity. We also need to expose bribery and corruption to change it and make us more proud of our country.
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