The impact of corruption on public life can be very hard. It can derange the economy, health, and quality of life. Despite this, it appears that corruption is ever-rising and unstoppable.
Further, since there are different types of corruption, it is hardly easy to escape the corruption effects. This is more of an awkward and defaming condition than being problematic.
The people involved in corruption seem to be proud of themselves as they make more money in a short time. To worst part is that those involved in corruption can get better promotions and opportunities than others.
The public also has developed an opinion that it is the only way to get their work done. If not, the work will be pending for a long or might not even be done.
Effects of Corruption
Corruption Effects on People and Public Life
Lack of quality in services
In a system with corruption, there is no quality of service. To demand quality, one might need to pay for it. This is seen in many areas like municipality, electricity, distribution of relief funds, etc.
If a person has to purchase a like medicine due to corruption in education, then the candidate, after completion of his course, will not like to provide quality health service if there is not enough remuneration for his service.
Further, candidates who do not have the ability can also get into the same seat by purchasing it. So though he becomes a medical practitioner, he may not be competent enough.
Lack of proper justice
Corruption in the judiciary system leads to improper justice. And the victims of offense might suffer. A crime may be proved as a benefit of the doubt due to a lack of evidence or even the evidence erased. Due to corruption in the police system, the investigation process goes on for decades.
This lets the culprits roam free and even perform more crimes. There are even chances that criminals due to old age due to the delayed investigation. So it leads to a sense of “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
Lack of respect for hardwork
When people earn a lot of money due to corruption through little effort, people who believe in hard work and ethics can lose their belief.
They may tend to avoid working hard and look for easy methods to make money.
Chances of Unemployment
This we can see with an example. The private education and training institutes are given permits to start providing education. This permit is given based on the infrastructure and sufficient recruitment of eligible staff. Here there are good chances of corruption. The institute or college managements try to bribe the quality inspectors so as to get permits. Though there is no sufficient eligible staff, these institutes get permission from the inspectors leading to unemployment. Instead of 10 faculties, a college is run by 5. So, even if well-qualified persons wish to get a job there, they will not be offered. If there were no corruption by inspectors, then there would be a chance for more employment.
Poor Health and hygiene
In countries with more corruption, one can notice more health problems among people. There will be no fresh drinking water, proper roads, quality food grains supply, milk adulteration, etc.
These low-quality services are all done to save money by the contractors and the officials who are involved. Even the medicine provided in hospitals for hospitals is of sub-standard quality. So all these can contribute to the ill health of a common man.
It arises mostly in the form of water, air, and land pollution.
Vehicles and factories are the main sources of pollution. The governments have a monitor on this pollution by regular check of vehicle emissions and also industrial exhausts.
Corruption in the government department lets the industry people opt to release untreated and harmful waste into rivers and air. If there is no corruption, there can be fair probes. The industry personnel will then treat the waste such that it is less toxic and harmless to the environment and people in it. So we can mean that corruption is also the main cause of pollution.
Sanction of driving license without a proper check of driving skills leads to accidents and death. Due to corruption, there are countries where one can drive a license without any tests.
Failure of genuine research
Research by individuals needs government funding. Some of the funding agencies have corrupt officers. These people sanction the funds for research to those investigators who are ready to bribe them.
In doing so, they do not sanction the funds to genuine and hardworking investigators. Thus the research and development will be lagging. This seems to be not a problem for the common public.
But if we notice the resistance of microbes to drugs, we can know that there were no new compounds discovered in the past few decades for the efficient treatment of resistant microbes.
Effects of corruption on Society
Disregard for officials
People start disregarding the official involved in corruption by talking negatively about him.
But when they have work with them, they again approach them by thinking that the work is done if some monetary benefits are provided.
Disregard officials will also build distrust. Even lower-grade officers will be disrespectful to higher-grade officers. So even he may not obey his orders.
Even incidents where a lower grade police officer kidnapped higher grade officers for not offering him leave when asked.
Lack of respect for rulers
Rulers of the nation like the president or prime ministers lose respect among the public. Respect is the main criteria in social life.
People go for voting during the election with the desire to improve their living standards by the election winner and respect for the leader.
If the politicians are involved in corruption, people knowing this will lose respect for them and will not like to cast their vote for such politicians.
Lack of faith and trust in the governments
People vote for a ruler based on their faith in him/ her. But if leaders are found to be involved in corruption, people lose faith in them and may not vote next time.
Also read: How to Stop corruption.
Aversion for joining the posts linked to corruption
Sincere, honest, and hardworking people develop an aversion for the particular posts deemed corrupt.
Though they like those jobs, they tend not to opt for them as they believe that they also would have to be involved in corruption if they get into the post.
Effects of corruption on Economy
A decrease in foreign investment
Many incidents wherein foreign investments that were willing to come to developing countries have gone back due to heavy corruption in government bodies.
Delay in growth
Due to a desire to mint money and other unlawful benefits, the official who needs to pass the clearances for projects or industries delays the process. A work which can be done in a few days may be done in a month.
This leads to delay in investments, the starting of industries, and also growth. Even if they started, company growth hinders as every work linked to officials gets delayed due to the need to provide bribes or other benefits.
Lack of development
Many new industries willing to get started in a particular region change their plans if the region is unsuitable.
If there are no proper roads, water, and electricity, the companies do not wish to start up there. This hinders the economic progress of that region.
Differences in trade ratio’s
Some countries have inefficient standard control institutes. Or in other words, these standard control institutes are corrupt and can approve low-quality products for sale in their country.
Hence you can see countries manufacturing cheap products dump them in big markets. These countries can manufacture cheap quality products but cannot dump in countries with strict standard control institutes. They can do so only in countries with chances of corrupt officials in standard control.
One best example is products that can’t be dumped into Europe, and US markets can be done in other country markets with poor import regulations and quality checks.
So there arises a trade deficit that these countries cannot manufacture their own products at a lower price than those exporting to them. So if corruption is minimized, these countries will have fewer trade deficits in terms of exports and imports with other countries, and their economies can prosper.