Organised crime and corruption
Friday, 16 September 2011
"Corruption feeds organised crime and organised crime feeds corruption." This is one of the key points made by Transparency International UK's Defence and Security Programme in its Organised crime, corruption, and the vulnerability of defence and security forces Paper. Criminal networks use corruption to carry out criminal activity, avoid investigation and escape prosecution. Criminal factions who abuse international borders in order to conduct their business put pressure on public services, local communities and legitimate businesses and an easy way to achieve this is through corruption. Beyond the often used example of Italian mafia, there is also illegal logging, which relies on bribing Foreign Service officials, forest guards, politicians, police and bureaucrats to get bogus logging permits. In the United States, attempts to reduce illegal logging have been opposed by the timber industry which, incidentally, is the third largest political contributor.
We in the Defence & Security team have long considered organised crime to be a major contributor to corruption in the defence and security sector. With our latest report we are exploring this connection further, and raising awareness about the depth of this issue. The paper looks into how defence and security forces can themselves become involved in organised crime. And it is exactly through corruption that this happens.
Read the full article on the Space for Transparency blog
Julia Muravska works for TI-UK's Defence and Security Programme