THE ECONOMICS OF CORRUPTION - CASE OF "BELLING THE CAT"

By Kennedy Sankale

Long time ago, there lived a colony of mice. The mice were so troubled due to the cat who never gave them freedom to walk in and dine in man’s home. 

One day, the mice organized a meeting, the agenda being the cat. The main goal of the meeting was to decide a good solution to free themselves of the enemy, the cat. The mice were so determined to come up with the best strategy to control their enemy.

They wished to find some way of knowing when she was coming, so that they might have time to escape. Something had to be planned because they lived in constant fear of the cat’s claws that they hardly dared to stir from their den by night and day. 

During the meeting, many plans were discussed on the table, but there was no plan which was thought to be good enough to control the cat. At last, a young mouse took the stage in the meeting and said, “I have a very simple solution and I know this will be very successful should we consider it. All we have to do is to look for a bell and hang it about the cat’s neck. When we hear the bell ringing we will immediately know that the enemy is coming, which will prepare us to run away before he’s on us. All the mice were so happy about the plan and surprised that they never thought about such a plan. While in the midst of rejoicing over the good fortune brought by the young mouse, an old mouse arose and said “I want to say that the proposal by the young mouse to hang the bell about the cat’s neck can be a good solution for us, but I have one question, WHO WILL BELL THE CAT?” All the mice that were present in the meeting started pointing fingers on each other. Everyone who was proposed to bell the cat gave an excuse, others complained that they fear more scratches on their bodies as a result of injuries as they escape the enemy, while others said they can’t bell the cat because they were still nursing injuries as a result of hit of objects while running away from the enemy. 

It is one thing to state that something should be done, but quite a more different matter to take the initiative of implementing the proposed idea.  

Synopsis and Idiomatic use 
“Belling the cat” is a fable also known under titles, “The bell and the cat” and The mice in the council” The synopsis and idiomatic use of this fable concerns a group of mice who debated plans to nullify the threats of a marauding cat, where they planned to hang a bell on the cat’s neck but everyone gave excuses and no one dared to bell the cat. This means attempting to perform a difficult or impossible task. In the case of this article, corruption is depicted as “the cat”, the colony of mice depicted as the community. There is a very interesting question that every community member keeps on asking one another, “Who will Bell Corruption”

Economics of Belling Corruption “The Cat” 
Corruption is evil. It is a threat to the community that everyone admires to bell, only to find it one of the most difficult task. In the case where the community (mice) is the victim of corruption (cat) and the owner of the cat is the entity that performs corruption, it is so obvious that belling instances of corruption and related cases would be an ideal plan so that we can always hear the enemy coming. 

The economy of corruption is a complicated mix of different elements where there are more opportunities for illicit gains that usually exist in all entities. There are a number of factors that determine the size and the incidences of bribe payments and grafts in different countries and such comes in with the political, socioeconomic and distributive consequences of corruption. 

Most economists say that bribes and grafts occur under two main reasons; to gain government benefits and to avoid costs. There are cases like for instance the bribes received by most of traffic departments in different countries. This comes in because where the car owners think they may pay more on penalties when arraign in courts, they will always pay for bribes to avoid the rule of law taking out its course. 

On the other hand, where the security departments think that they do not have enough salary in their pockets at the end of the month, they will always strive to accept bribes to cover up their daily expenses. In public offices, notably are individuals who obtain money from members of the community in the aid of securing jobs for them. This can be a 50/50 gain. Where a jobless person buy out a position, they gain for giving out money. This is neutralized by a person who sees his/her salary too little to manage the daily chores and expenses getting an extra shilling to survive. The citizens continue to press the public officials to bell corruption, very interestingly, it should be the officials’ role to ask the community to act as the watchdogs and abstain from anything which does not rime with the law. 

There is normally little evidence in most countries on how often the leadership, in both public and private sectors as well as individuals take the most advantage on corrupt loopholes and how much amount is directed to bribes. Research reveals that where corruption is endemic, it usually imposes disproportionality high burden to the common citizens and more so to private and medium firms. The severities in the cost of corruption aren’t bribes themselves, but most important is the underlying reveled in the process of corruption. Researchers suggest that the root causes of corruption lies in the delegation of power. 

The discretionary use of power, especially in leadership and monopolistic status by the public individuals who enjoy dealing with contracts often makes corruption imminent. In this case of power, corruption normally presents itself in a point where the political, bureaucratic and economic interests coincide. 

Corruption in a market, is a product which is based on a contract or an agreement between different interests by firms, pressure groups and citizens trying to maximize gains by paying bribes, while officers in public domain try to maximize their illegal earnings and politicians try to maximize their power and wealth: this is a standalone reason as to why it will take a longer than expected time to bell corruption. 

The cost of corruption in a country can be very difficult to estimate, often because of the secrecy in it and distortions caused are hard to tell. Corruption will still be present in developing countries and is such a difficult task to neutralize as long as it is difficult for the mice to bell the cat. 

“Who will bell corruption?