Many Roads to Corruption

I just cut and pasted these words from this presentation [PDF]. It gives a nice zeitgeist of the many roads to corruption in water services:

Collusion in contract bids Tendering kickbacks Contract kickback Conceal substandard work. Funding poorly designed schemes + activities not reflecting best practice. Tendering kickbacks and free services Collusion/kickbacks to senior politicians Payments for transfers, promotions, appointments. Kickbacks for connections or to avoid disconnections, avoid payments. Collusion in approving inferior projects, and in not investigating corruption; pressure to spend money. Kickbacks for tenders, collusion substandard construction and underperformance in contracts. Collusion in selection + approval of plans/schemes. Kickbacks. Payments for appointments. Collusion in tendering Concealing substandard work. Payments for promotions, transfers. Speed money for faster maintenance, for connections, repairs. Kickbacks for non-payment. Collusion concealing substandard work. Payments for job placement, promotions, Bribes to falsify meter reading, conceal illegal connections. Failure to do assigned work. Over-charging.

The author suggests transparent and competitive tenders for contracts, backed by guarantees for work performed. Rather simple, yes?

Those interested in water, development and corruption should read this paper on the "water brokers" who are making themselves indispensable (and wealthy) advising aid agencies how to spend their money on water projects in developing countries.

Also check out the table of contents for more anthro-themed discussions of water.

Bottom Line: It takes extra work to fight corruption, but you do want to drink the water, right?