Anti-corruption commissions: lessons for the Asia-Pacific region from a proposed Australian federal anti-corruption watchdog

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews the experience of anti-corruption commissions in the region and argues that the debate on the establishment of a national anti-corruption body in Australia is dependent on the country’s political culture, institutions and elites. Corruption and integrity coexist and are conceived as the obverse and converse, respectively, of a functional and dysfunctional system. Anti-corruption bodies in the Asia-Pacific region are compared against applicable global anti-corruption frameworks, policies and principles. The paper proposes a conceptual model for a National Integrity Ecosystem (NIE), premised on community values and trust and situates the Australian experience within such an ecosystem. A federal anti-corruption watchdog is the missing piece in Australia’s institutional infrastructure. Its acceptance and effectiveness require difficult and sustained change in the underlying political culture of the country and its elites.

KEYWORDS:

• Asia-Pacific
• Australia
• corruption
• institutions
• national integrity system

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our anonymous reviewers for providing constructive comments that helped refine the ideas explored in the several iterations of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. From Viscount Bolingbroke (1740): 'Casuistry…destroys distinctions and exceptions, all morality, and effaces the essential differences between right and wrong’ (from Oxford English Dictionary online).

2. China’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) Home Page (in Mandarin), http://www.ccdi.gov.cn accessed 2 February 2018.

3. HK Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), A Brief History, http://www.icac.org.hk/en/about/history/index.html accessed 2 February 2018.

4. HK ICAC, Organization Structure http://www.icac.org.hk/en/ops/struct/index.html accessed 2 February 2018.

5. Indonesia’s Komisi Pemberantasan Korupsi (KPK) Home Page (in Bahasa Indonesia), https://www.kpk.go.id/id accessed 2 February 2018.

6. South Korea’s Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC), Home Page, http://www.acrc.go.kr/en/ accessed 2 February 2018.

7. Thailand’s Office of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC), Home Page, https://www.nacc.go.th/main.php?filename=index_en accessed 2 February 2018.

8. Thailand’s NACC, Duties and Responsibilities, https://www.nacc.go.th/ewt_news.php?nid=937 accessed 2 February 2018.

9. HK’s ICAC Organizational Structure http://www.icac.org.hk/en/ops/struct/index.html accessed 2 February 2018.

10. We would like to thank our reviewer for explaining this institutional evolution.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marie dela Rama

Marie dela Rama (PhD) is a Management Academic from UTS Business School, Sydney, Australia. Her research interests cover aged care, business ethics, corporate governance and corruption. Her most recent book is The Changing Face of Corruption in the Asia-Pacific (with Chris Rowley, Elsevier 2017).

Michael Lester

Michael Lester (BE [Hons], BA, MEc) is Principal of Long View Partners, Sydney, Australia. He has extensive public policy experience as an economist having worked with central policy and line agencies in Australia at the federal and state levels. He has also worked with diplomatic status on environment issues at the OECD in Paris, as a trade representative for Australia in India and as an Investment Policy Adviser with the World Bank. Michael has travelled extensively on business including in the Asia Pacific region.