Regulating Anti-Corruption and Transparency - A Path to Accountability and Trust
By: Cameron Johnson | June 26th, 2023
Briefing: Corruption undermines stable economies and erodes trust in political institutions, necessitating robust anti-corruption measures and enhanced transparency. This article explores the merits of regulating anti-corruption and transparency efforts. We can evaluate the advantages of regulatory measures in combating corruption, ensuring accountability, and fostering trust among everyday citizens.
Defining Anti-Corruption and Transparency: Anti-corruption efforts counters practices such as bribery, embezzlement, lobbying, and extortion that undermine political institutions and economies. Transparency advocates for clear channels of communication between the public and government, enabling access to databases, records, and updates on international matters. These initiatives aim to expose corruption and ensure accountability.
The U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption: The Biden-Harris administration created a team called the U.S. Strategy on Countering Corruption. It focuses on intelligence collection, analyzing networks, sharing resources among federal departments, bolstering law enforcement, and strengthening multilateral anti-corruption efforts. President Biden's objectives include holding corrupt individuals accountable and modernizing anti-corruption efforts within the U.S. Government.
Regulatory Actions for Effective Anti-Corruption and Transparency: To address corruption effectively, AEPC believes these actions can be taken:
Enhancing Accountability: The establishment of the Transparency in Government Act by Representative Mike Quigley (D-IL-5) in 2021 targets all 3 branches of government. It aims to put rules and regulations in place that will effectively target corruption. In the legislative branch it enforces Congress to post advisory and policymaking info in a designated time frame. Within the Executive branch, all advertisements, budget requests, and grants need to be disclosed. The Judicial branch would be required to conduct open court cases live on television. These are a small variety of what the act targets.
Creating a Level Playing Field: Regulation would help as mentioned above, but requiring documentation of important conversations and disclosing financial transactions of those who are suspected of wrongdoing will go further in battling corruption. The use of intelligence gathered by data-monitoring teams can be used to analyze suspicious activities.
Safeguarding Public Trust: The most important factor regarding corruption is not just that it occurs, but that it occurs without it being widely publicized. The Freedom of Information Act was established in 1967 which provided citizens the ability to request access to records from any federal agency. Resurfacing this act will establish its initial purpose and initiate the building of a strong relationship between the government and general public.
International Cooperation: Establishing strong connections on an international scale will allow collaboration on anti-corruption efforts by creating unified regulatory standards and working with our international partners to better expose cross-border corruption. .
Advocating for the regulation of anti-corruption and transparency efforts is crucial for creating a fairer and more accountable society. Through enhanced accountability, a level playing field, safeguarding public trust, and international cooperation, regulatory measures lay the foundation for combating corruption. Regardless of political affiliation, supporting regulatory initiatives that promote transparency, accountability, and the eradication of corruption is in the best interest of all citizens and organizations.
*AEPC is a nonpartisan, nonprofit 501(c)3 organization. We do not advocate for any political party, only for data-backed policy. All opinions published reflect the available data at the time.