Publish at September 22 2008 Updated October 23 2024
One of the basic principles of justice is that you can't be both judge and jury.
When public administration is also the administration of justice, you can guess that there may be a problem. Kings and emperors have long placed themselves above the law.
It took a coalition of English barons in 1215 to force King John of England to submit to Magna Carta, the embryo of parliament. This meant that the king could no longer coerce the people at will; he had to respect his own laws.
Today, we still follow this tradition, and control of public administration is normally placed in the hands of bodies reporting directly to parliament or the judiciary, in principle independent of government.
At the same time, the media also become investigators, and can stir up volatile public opinion. The effects are often mixed. We've found that it's generally more effective and constructive to use the law than to take the law into one's own hands, if only through the media.
Here are a number of resources to help ensure the quality of public administration.
First and foremost,
Transparency International is a non-governmental organization with branches in over 80 countries. In addition to its role as a witness, it works actively to implement reforms aimed at improving the transparency and integrity of public administrations.
Also
A formidable database and in-depth files on corporate actors linked to public corruption. Transnationale.org hits corrupt companies where it hurts. The database is available by subscription only.
Then there are the legal bases on which to build:
Next, the control bodies present on the Internet
Also, other anti-corruption resources:
These last two organizations illustrate the problem of independence and the difficulty of self-discipline. Can we have confidence in these bodies when precedents such as Interpol, implicated in drug and arms trafficking, the World Bank, implicated in influence peddling, and other para-governmental bodies, despite their good intentions, end up bending under the weight of political games, personal advantage and lack of control and supervision?
At least the intention is there.
Illustration: Clker-Free-Vector - Pixabay
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