Fighting public officer and corporate crimes

• DOI: 10.10520/EJC73779
• Date: 01 January 2001
• Author: G. Acquaah-Gaisie
• Pages: 88-104
• Published date: 01 January 2001

FIGHTING PUBLIC OFFICER AND

CORPORATE CRIMES

G Acquaah-Gaisie1

Abstract

Public officer and corporate crimes inhibit economic growth and

social and economic development in a country, and bring suffering

and political instability. Corporate crimes can affect even strong

economies like that of Australia; but a climate of public officer

crime can decimate a country’s wealth and jeopardise its social

and economic development as evidenced generally in Africa, e.g.

Ghana and to some extent South Africa. The paper contrasts the

political history of Ghana with more established democratic coun-

tries like the UK and Australia which have embedded in their poli-

tical, social and economic systems checks and balances which

promote accountability in high places. These checks and balances

include a vigilant press and a savvy electorate. In other newly in-

dependent countries — Botswana and Singapore — economies

and living circumstances have flourished through accountable and

efficient leadership in the corporate and public spheres. Sugges-

tions are made toward greater accountability in these sectors, in-

cluding inculcation of the UN Code of Conduct for Public Officials

1996, democratic accountability, popular involvement in fighting

public officer crimes, social and economic reform, pro-active poli-

cing of corporate conduct, adequate funding and resources to re-

gulatory bodies, heavy prison terms for corporate criminals, and

encouragement of whistle-blowing.

Definitions

“Public officers” are those who hold positions of responsibility and

trust in a country including politicians and top civil servants. Article

1 of the UN Code of Conduct for Public Officials 1996 states that

a public office implies:

a duty to act in the public interest. Therefore, the ultimate

loyalty of public officials shall be to the public interests of

88

1Dr Gerald Acquaah-Gaisie, originally from Ghana, is now a citizen of

Australia. He was formerly the Director of Ghana Prisons Service. He

is a barrister and solicitor and teaches business law, corporate crime,

and information technology law at Monash University in Victoria,

Australia. The author is grateful to Associate Professor Stanley

Johnston of the University of Melbourne for commenting on the draft

of the paper.

their country as expressed through the democratic institu-

tions of government.2

Thus “public officer crimes” are illegalities perpetrated by public of-

ficials exploiting their office for self-enrichment. Corruption, bribery,

economic mismanagement by politicians,3nepotism, and embez-

zlement of public funds are examples. Public officer crimes can

endanger the stability and security of societies, undermine

the values of democracy and morality and jeopardize

social, economic and political development.

Corruption links to “other forms of crime, in particular organized

crime and economic crime, including money laundering”; it cros-

ses national borders and affects all societies and economies.4

Corporate crime is a white collar crime.

White collar crime is a term [used widely] to describe that

type of crime generally associated with corporate entities ...

but specifically associated with supervisors, managers,

company secretaries, treasurers and directors in organiza-

tions ... Corporate crime is white collar crime on a larger

scale than individuals who use their positions of power, in-

fluence or trust to make illegal gains ... .[It] involves of-

fences committed by companies or their agents against

members of the public, the environment, creditors, inves-

tors or corporate competitors.5

So corporate crime is organisational whilst white collar crime is

generally regarded as individualistic.

The impact of public officer crimes

Corruption by public officers in Africa has been widely studied.6

Some scholars see it as an inevitable outcome of the clash

between traditional values and imported norms that have accom-

89

2UN General Assembly Resolution 51/59. See http://www.ifs.univie.

ac.at/~uncjin/corrupt.htm. Visited 4/9/99.

3Economic mismanagement is not a crime. However, its end results

are so injurious to the community that the effects of normal crimes

pale into insignificance in comparison with them. Agovernment which

allocates scarce resources to the piling up of military ware whilst hun-

dreds of children die of starvation or as a result of poor health care

commits a more serious harm to the community than a person who

commits armed robbery or an isolated murder.

4Preamble.

5Bryett et al, Criminal Justice in Australia, Butterworths, 1993, pp. 76-78.

6Mbaku JM “Bureaucratic Corruption in Africa: the Futility of Clean-

ups,” Cato Journal, 16 (1) 1996. This article has a number of other

references on this topic at the end. See http://www.cato.

org/pubs/journal/cj16n1-6.html (Accessed on 8/9/99).