Anti-corruption Odyssey

LAURENCE COCKCROFT, Chair of the UK chapter of Transparency International (TI), stressed the role of the individual in fighting corruption, in a lecture at the IC centre in London in February. He spoke of the 'huge courage, effort and energy' of the four winners of TI's annual Integrity Awards, which are given to individuals who have stood out against corruption.

With democracy more widespread than ever before, 'it is much harder for a senior politician to be corrupt in front of the public', Cockcroft said. 'But on an individual level it depends on how far people take on initiatives to change it.'

'Corruption is a dynamic entity,' he said. 'It gets better or worse, but is never static. We have to ask the question: to what extent corruption prevents the world from becoming inclusive.'

Referring to the role of religion in Africa, he said that 'Islam and Christianity are both antagonistic to corruption, but there is a failure by both, institutionally, to address the question.'

Cockcroft stressed that TI in the UK 'needs to focus more on what is going on in defence and politics'. In the private sector changes happen much faster than in the political or public sectors. The day after Cockcroft's forum, the Financial Times reported that there had been no major prosecutions of businesses for corrupt practices. The paper quoted Cockcroft as saying that corporate behaviour would 'only change markedly when there are a couple of high-profile prosecutions'.