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The Universality of Political Corruption

Sep-29-2009 By Christine

Political corruption  has been around ever since the advent of politics, same can be said for Electoral corruption. Note that Electoral corruption is a subset of political corruption and therefore is a narrower version of political corruption and is still as old as elections itself.  Political corruption, coincides with electoral corruption and is a prominent feature concerning politics and elections involving old and new democracies. An interesting example of this is in the Southern States of the U.S., like Mississippi is infamous for election fraud aimed at disenfranchising African American voters. Another example is the Daley machine in Chicago or the Huey Long machine in Louisiana.

These machines were found to be rigged and had ties to the Mafia. A final example is the Watergate scandal heightened sensitivity to political corruption and led to the implementation of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in 1974. This commission oversees election administration and all campaign financing.  The impact of severe political corruption and election fraud in a brand new democracy, like our own can be more pernicious and devastating.

It is clear that political corruption, the abuse of state resources and especially election fraud for partisan electoral purposes have extremely deep cultural and structural origins. They are intimately related to our Constitution, to the extent that they impose checks and balances, to the operational separation of state from government from the ruling party, to the degree of security of tenure enjoyed by the public servants, to the control of the economy and media and to the extent of the size and autonomy of the non-state and private sector.

They beg the question of whether or not there is genuine constitutionalism. Therefore, rather than resorting to exhortations and hand-slapping of the abusers, the problem must instead be addressed through institutional measures, like correcting structural flaws in the Constitution and laws of the country. Reduce Presidential and public official discretionary powers, shore up the independence of oversight and accountability bodies, bolster not only the independence, but the capacity of the Auditor General Department , and enact civic and public education that targets and raises the public, media and civil societies awareness and sensitivity to the problem.

Anti-Money Laundering (ATB), has established the ‘Know Your Customer‘ policy as an essential process in stopping unintentional involvement with illegal activities. These procedures are in order to assist ATB with assessing money-laundering risks that are associated with each potential new client and already established clients.

All ATB associates are required to ascertain and take, within reason, measures in finding out the identities of these potential new clients and already established clients. If ATB is satisfied with the verification of a client’s identity, then and only then can an account be opened. Plus, there are new procedures that were developed by the ATB that will ascertain whether a client is operating on behalf of a third party for both new accounts and existing accounts. Also, all transactions of countries identified by the United Nations Resolutions and the Canadian government and their individuals or entities, are not recognized by the ATB.

ATB’s policies ensures that only ATB accepts clients whose activities can reasonably be established to be legitimate. They require all ATB associates be trained to recognize and respond to any suspicious and potential money-laundering activities. Depending on the position held by an ATB associate, the training may be basic or extensive. Reporting such transactions in compliance with the applicable regulations and ensures the ATB retains appropriate records of client information through due diligence measures and are retained for 5 years.

Any company with international dealings or financial institution must implement ATB’s polices. ATB will make sure the following measures have been established:   A Chief of Compliance Office needs to be appointed to provide independent oversight of compliance by ATB and its subsidiaries. An officer needs to be designated to be responsible for corporate wide measures with which to combat terrorist financing and money laundering and will report directly to senior management.

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