A slush fund is a fund or account that is not properly accounted, such as money used for corrupt or illegal purposes, especially in the political sphere. Such funds may be kept hidden and maintained separately from money that is used for legitimate purposes. Slush funds may be employed by government or corporate officials in efforts to pay influential people discreetly in return for preferential treatment, advance information (such as non-public information in financial transactions), and other services. The funds themselves may not be kept secret but the source of the funds or how they were acquired or for what purposes they are used may be hidden. Use of slush funds to influence government activities may be viewed as

subversive Subversion () refers to a process by which the values and principles of a system in place are contradicted or reversed in an attempt to transform the established social order and its structures of power, authority, hierarchy, and social norms. Sub ...

of the

democratic process Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choose gover ...

. In accounting, the term ''slush fund'' describes a general ledger account of commingled funds to which all manner of transactions can be posted, with

debit Debits and credits in double-entry bookkeeping are entries made in account ledgers to record changes in value resulting from business transactions. A debit entry in an account represents a transfer of value ''to'' that account, and a credit en ...

s and

credit Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt) ...

s cancelling each other.

Examples

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as a representative and senator from California and was ...

's "

Checkers speech The Checkers speech or Fund speech was an address made on September 23, 1952, by Senator Richard Nixon ( R- CA), six weeks before the 1952 United States presidential election, in which he was the Republican nominee for Vice President. Nixon had ...

" of 1952 was a somewhat successful effort to dispel a scandal concerning a slush fund of

campaign contributions Campaign finance, also known as election finance or political donations, refers to the funds raised to promote candidates, Political party, political parties, or policy initiatives and referendums. Political parties, charitable organizations, a ...

. Years later, Nixon's presidential re-election campaign used slush funds to buy the silence of the "

White House Plumbers The White House Plumbers, sometimes simply called the Plumbers, the Room 16 Project, or more officially, the White House Special Investigations Unit, was a covert White House Special Investigations Unit, established within a week after the public ...

Etymology

The term ''slush fund'' was originally a

nautical term __NOTOC__ M ...

: the slush was the

fat In nutrition science, nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such chemical compound, compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food. The term often refers spec ...

or grease skimmed from the top of the cauldron when boiling

salted meat Salt-cured meat or salted meat is meat or fish preserved or Curing (food preservation), cured with salt. Salting (food), Salting, either with edible salt, dry salt or brine, was a common method of preserving meat until the middle of the 20th ce ...

. Ship officers would sell the fat to

tallow Tallow is a rendering (industrial), rendered form of beef or mutton fat, primarily made up of triglycerides. In industry, tallow is not strictly defined as beef or mutton fat. In this context, tallow is animal fat that conforms to certain techn ...

makers, with the resulting proceeds kept as a ''slush fund'' for making small purchases for the ship's crew.Garg, Anu. A.Word.A.Day mailing list, 2017-Mar-01. http://wordsmith.org/words/slush_fund.html

References

{{Corruption Corruption Financial crimes Funds Nautical terminology

Examples

Etymology

See also

References