Corruption in Colombia is a pervasive problem at all levels of
government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...
, as well as in the military and police forces. A general culture and awareness of this corruption permeates society as a whole.
Various factors have contributed to political corruption in Colombia including:
drug trafficking,
guerrilla and paramilitary conflict,
weak surveillance and regulation from institutions, intimidation and harassment of whistle-blowers, and a widespread apathy from society to address unethical behavior. The government is continuously taking steps to measure and reduce levels of corruption at all levels through anti-corruption policies. Initiatives have also been headed by the private sector in the interest of facilitating and encouraging business activities.
A
Global Corruption Barometer The Global Corruption Barometer published by Transparency International is the largest survey in the world tracking public opinion on corruption. It surveys 114,000 people in 107 countries on their view of corruption.
Have you paid a bribe in 2013? ...
survey from 2010 found that the institutions seen as most corrupt were the political parties and the parliament, followed by the police and public officials, the judiciary and the military.
Transparency International
Transparency International e.V. (TI) is a German registered association founded in 1993 by former employees of the World Bank. Based in Berlin, its nonprofit and non-governmental purpose is to take action to combat global corruption with civil ...
's 2022
Corruption Perceptions Index, based on experts' and businesspeople's perceptions of corruption in the public sector, gave Columbia a score of 39 on a scale from 0 ("highly corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"). When ranked by score, Columbia ranked 91st among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector. For comparison with worldwide scores, the best score was 90 (ranked 1), the average score was 43, and the worst score was 12 (ranked 180). For comparison with regional scores, the highest score among the countries of the Americas was 74, the average score was 43 and the lowest score was 14.
History of corruption
Practices of corruption that plague politics and the judicial system are, in part, rooted in the colonial legacies of the Spanish conquest. The Spanish Empire was known to possess a disorganised and corrupt bureaucracy, which was transplanted to its colonies, including Colombia.
The first courts established by the Spaniards in America were also known to be corrupt and inefficient.
For example, Colombia inherited the ineffective and distrusted legal system which fails to guarantee private property rights in order to promote economic investment. One of the primary ways colonial elites could make a fortune was through occupying important positions in the judicial bureaucracy of the colony and thereby capturing rents.
Impacts of corruption
Between 1989 and 1999, corruption in Colombia is estimated to have cost the state 1% of its
GDP
Gross domestic product (GDP) is a monetary measure of the market value of all the final goods and services produced and sold (not resold) in a specific time period by countries. Due to its complex and subjective nature this measure is ofte ...
annually. In addition to the economic cost of corruption, other aspects of Colombian society have been affected such as the loss of credibility of politicians and the Colombian government, as well as the demoralization and disinterest of society at large in political participation.
Recent studies of criminal behavior in the country indicate that while the rate of crime grew annually about 39.7%, the criminal behavior by officials in local and national government grew 164.1%, and despite this increase there are few
conviction
In law, a conviction is the verdict reached by a court of law finding a defendant guilty of a crime. The opposite of a conviction is an acquittal (that is, "not guilty"). In Scotland, there can also be a verdict of " not proven", which is cons ...
s. The levels of administrative corruption are so high that as of 2011, the media reports of such felonies overshadow the stories on terrorism or armed conflict.
A 2005 study published by Transparency for Colombia (''Transparencia por Colombia'') assessed the index of integrity of governments, assemblies, and comptrollers at the
departmental
''Departmental'' is a 1980 Australian TV movie based on a play by Mervyn Rutherford. It was part of the ABC's Australian Theatre Festival.Ed. Scott Murray, ''Australia on the Small Screen 1970-1995'', Oxford Uni Press, 1996 p43 Reviews were poor ...
level and concluded that none of those dependencies scored an appropriate level of integrity.
51% were prone to high or very high levels of corruption.
Colombia's modern corruption takes place mostly at the level of business between politicians and officials with private contractors and companies. The lack of ethical behavior among private individuals or organizations, and politicians has resulted in a culture known in Colombia as ''"serrucho"'' (saw), in which it is almost the norm for individuals to bribe politicians in order to be granted contracts and for politicians to add commissions and extra costs for their own benefit. Other sources of corruption come from the result of privatization of government owned institutions in which the profits are used by individuals for their own wealth.
According to Transparency for Colombia, the country ranks 70 in the
Perception of Corruption index. However, the problem of corruption is a high priority to only 2.9% of the people interviewed versus violence, which is a high priority to 31.49%, and unemployment, which is a high priority to 20.7%.
According to a study by the
Universidad Externado de Colombia
The Universidad Externado de Colombia (Externado University of Colombia) is a private university in Bogotá, Colombia. It has produced graduates including lawyers, academics, judges, financiers, journalists, as well as senior government officials a ...
, corruption is one of the main factors that render doing business difficult in Colombia. 91% of entrepreneurs consider that some business owners pay bribes. 16.92% say that a businessperson will offer a bribe, and out of the 28.4% of entrepreneurs who were asked for money or favors by a government official, only 8.52% reported it to the authorities in an effective way.
Political corruption
Current levels of corruption have increased steadily since 2009 and continue getting worse as the
Attorney General and the
comptroller discover corruption at almost every level of government, from local to national. In September 2009, 48.000 government officials, including 800 mayors and 30 governors, were being investigated for corruption. The issue of corruption has not been isolated to one political party; accusations of corruption span the
political spectrum
A political spectrum is a system to characterize and classify different political positions in relation to one another. These positions sit upon one or more geometric axes that represent independent political dimensions. The expressions politi ...
, from right-wing conservatives in the
Party of National Unity to the left-wing
Democratic Pole.
The discouragement of society from addressing the many cases of corruption in Colombia also stems from the well known immunity: only a small percentage of officials investigated for corruption are likely to suffer legal consequences. In addition, it is difficult for the judicial system to handle many investigations at lower levels. At the top, politicians avoid prosecution via political maneuvering and loopholes, sometimes under the protection of their own political party. An example of this is the attempt by the Party of National Unity to pass a bill that would protect its politicians involved in the
parapolitics scandal
The Colombian parapolitics scandal or "parapolítica" in Spanish (a combination of the words '' paramilitar'' and '' política'') refers to the 2006–present Colombian congressional scandal in which several congressmen and other politicians hav ...
.
Colombia's corruption is also the result of a long coexistence between the drug trafficking and a rush of society members to achieve easy wealth, thus rendering every aspect of society vulnerable to corruption, from politics, to agriculture and sports.
Corruption within institutions
Many institutions in Colombia have been the subject of administrative corruption. Some Examples of large institutions, that span across industries and have been involved in major cases of corruption, include: ''Ferrovias'' (national railroad administration), ''Caprecom'' (health care), ''Foncolpuertos'' (ports authority), ''Termorrio'' (energy), ''Dragacol'' (civil engineering), ''Chivor reservoir'' (water supply), and contracts with foreign companies such as Mexican
ICA for the pavement of streets in
Bogota.
Municipal-level corruption
Levels of corruption at the local level (towns, cities) has been increasing since the 1990 relative to corruption levels at the national scale
Politic scandals
''Colombian corruption scandals'' are often related to the
conflict
Conflict may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''Conflict'' (1921 film), an American silent film directed by Stuart Paton
* ''Conflict'' (1936 film), an American boxing film starring John Wayne
* ''Conflict'' (1937 film) ...
that has affected Colombia for 50 years.
*The
Proceso 8000
8,000 Process (from the es, Proceso 8.000) is the unofficial name of the legal investigation for the events surrounding accusations about the Colombian Liberal Party candidate Ernesto Samper's 1994 campaign for President of Colombia being parti ...
, the legal investigation to the events that happened in the middle-1990s, when the president of Colombia,
Ernesto Samper
Ernesto Samper Pizano (born 3 August 1950) is a Colombian politician. Samper is a member of the influential Samper family. He served as the President of Colombia from 1994 to 1998, representing the Liberal Party. From 2014 to 2017 he served ...
, was accused of receiving money from
drug lords for his electoral campaign.
*The
Colombian parapolitics scandal
The Colombian parapolitics scandal or "parapolítica" in Spanish (a combination of the words '' paramilitar'' and '' política'') refers to the 2006–present Colombian congressional scandal in which several congressmen and other politicians hav ...
, which debuted in 2006, revealed links between politicians and paramilitaries. Supporters of
Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe Vélez (born 4 July 1952) is a Colombian politician who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010.
Uribe started his political career in his home department of Antioquia. He held offices in t ...
's government are involved in this scandal.
*The
Yidispolitics Scandal
Yidispolitics is the name given to the public scandal in Colombia, which began in April 2008, when the ex-politician Yidis Medina admitted to have received bribes to vote in favor of the re-election project, which changed the constitution and a ...
, caused by declarations of the Colombian ex-representative,
Yidis Medina, in which she claims that Colombian government offered her important jobs and money if she voted for the approval of Uribe's reelection.
*The 2006
DAS scandal, in which the now-defunct Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (Administrative Department of Security) illegally wiretapped the telephones and other communication lines of Supreme Court magistrates, judges, senators, journalists and other prominent figures perceived as opposition to the
Álvaro Uribe
Álvaro Uribe Vélez (born 4 July 1952) is a Colombian politician who served as the 31st President of Colombia from 7 August 2002 to 7 August 2010.
Uribe started his political career in his home department of Antioquia. He held offices in t ...
administration.
*The 2011 DIAN (Office of taxation and customs) scandal in which the administrative staff plotted ways to steal millions of dollars from the Colombian taxpayers through a complex system of fake companies and legal loopholes.
*In 2011 a number of mayors in different departments misused money that was supposed to help Colombians that were affected by floods. Instead of using this money for the victims this officials used the funds for political campaigns and personal matters.
*In September 2011 former mayor of Bogota
Samuel Moreno was convicted for irregularities in contracts with private businesses, under a scandal named "contract carousel" by the media.
*In February 2014 a massive corruption network within the Colombian army was exposed. High-ranking military officers siphoned money and took bribes in order to grant contracts. Some of this senior officers took bribes up to 50% of the cost of the contracts they awarded. Other elements of the military were taking money that was intended to be used for military supplies
*In February 2018, the ''Corte Suprema de Justicia'' leaked audios in which ex-president
Alvaro Uribe talks with ''Juan Guillermo Villegas'', investigated for paramilitarism, about manipulating witnesses in a case against ''Ivan Cepeda''; a Colombian senator. Uribe knew they were being intercepted, and literally says "those sons of bitches are hearing this call".
Notes
See also
;General
*
Crime in Colombia
*
Corruption by country
The Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is an index which ranks countries "by their perceived levels of public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys." The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of entru ...
*
Elections in Colombia
Elections in Colombia are regulated and controlled by the National Electoral Council which provides information on elections and election results in for the politics of Colombia.
Colombia elects on national level a head of state - the president ...
*
Government of Colombia
The Government of Colombia is a republic with separation of powers into executive, judicial and legislative branches.
Its legislature has a congress,
its judiciary has a supreme court, and
its executive branch has a president.
The citiz ...
*
Colombian anti-corruption referendum, 2018
;Specific scandals
*
Colombian parapolitics scandal
The Colombian parapolitics scandal or "parapolítica" in Spanish (a combination of the words '' paramilitar'' and '' política'') refers to the 2006–present Colombian congressional scandal in which several congressmen and other politicians hav ...
*
Nule Group corruption scandal
*
Proceso 8000
8,000 Process (from the es, Proceso 8.000) is the unofficial name of the legal investigation for the events surrounding accusations about the Colombian Liberal Party candidate Ernesto Samper's 1994 campaign for President of Colombia being parti ...
*
Yidispolitics Scandal
Yidispolitics is the name given to the public scandal in Colombia, which began in April 2008, when the ex-politician Yidis Medina admitted to have received bribes to vote in favor of the re-election project, which changed the constitution and a ...
References
{{South America topic, Corruption in
Columbia
Crime in Colombia by type
Politics of Colombia