The lucrative business of corruption and its deadly costs
CORRUPTION is often defended as a kind of “grease” that keeps commerce moving, a shortcut that supposedly helps firms navigate slow bureaucracies and underpaid public offices. For some businesses and the crooks who profit from it, it can even be lucrative.
But this illusion collapses when viewed from society’s perspective: corruption drains public revenues, discourages investment, raises prices and erodes essential services. What enriches a few ultimately becomes a burden borne by millions, increasing poverty, hunger and preventable deaths.
Global data underscores the scale and persistence of corruption worldwide, with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners reporting that it appeared in 45 percent of cases studied. The findings reflected factors such as cultural norms, strength of anti-corruption laws and consistency of enforcement, yet corruption remains prevalent across industries and government organizations. It also occurs more frequently in large organizations than in small ones.
Global indices paint an even starker picture, with the Corruption Perception Index 2025 identifying South Sudan and Somalia as the world’s most corrupt states. In South Sudan, corruption worsened during the civil war of the 2010s as leaders routinely used state funds to buy loyalty from militias and to enrich themselves. Promised public financial management reforms under a 2018 peace deal failed to materialize and South Sudanese officials have continued to divert resources. Their corruption has also become more sophisticated, making use of off-budget schemes and politically connected contracts.
South Sudan’s political elites have entrenched systemic corruption that has triggered a severe human rights crisis, according to a United Nations report that found billions in oil and non-oil revenues had been siphoned off through opaque schemes and patronage networks, leaving millions without basic services. Despite more than $25 billion in oil income since 2011, education, health and justice systems remain in collapse, with international donors now funding most essential services.
The report warned that corruption — not conflict alone — was driving hunger, preventable deaths and the breakdown of state institutions. It highlighted massive budget distortions that overwhelmingly benefit political elites as well as emblematic schemes like the “Oil for Roads” program, which diverted an estimated $2.2 billion. With reforms under the Revitalized Peace Agreement largely unimplemented and impunity persisting, the UN concluded that South Sudan’s transition was at risk and that accountability for economic crimes was essential to prevent further suffering.
In Somalia, meanwhile, corruption is widespread and systemic as reported by Transparency International. Years of conflict and a protracted humanitarian crisis have left millions displaced while the loss of public funds and aid to corruption has further worsened living conditions. Bribery, both in everyday transactions between public officials and citizens, and at senior political levels, along with the misappropriation of state resources, favoritism and nepotism are pervasive across the public sector.
The Bertelsmann Transformation Index notes that very few effective measures have been put into place in Somalia to increase transparency in public financial management and that a culture of impunity for public officials prevails. The theft of aid in Somalia is systemic, with an entire ecosystem — including refugee camp owners, local authorities, humanitarian workers and members of the security forces who intimidate and sometimes arrest those who refuse to pay — benefiting.
In 2023, the auditor general investigated allegations financial mismanagement across multiple Somali government departments and urged that officials involved be held accountable, uncovering roughly $21 million in embezzled treasury funds from 2018 to 2023. Additionally, in 2024, the auditor general released a report identifying systemic weaknesses in the public financial management of 21 federal entities.
The global examples are not distant tragedies; they are mirrors reflecting what can happen when corruption becomes routine and accountability collapses. In the Philippines, the controversies surrounding flood control projects, the smuggling of illegal drugs through customs, the Pharmally procurement scandal and the pork barrel scam represent only a fraction of what governance experts, anti-corruption watchdogs and even past Senate inquiries have long described as a deeply rooted “culture of corruption.”
According to Transparency International, a significant portion of the Philippines’ climate-tagged flood control budget has been exposed to alleged misappropriation since 2023, with losses potentially exceeding $19 billion. In 2025 alone, $3 billion of flood-related climate projects might have been lost to corruption. The accusations involve the diversion of public funds by officials and contractors, undermining the integrity of government programs designed to protect communities from increasingly frequent and intense flooding.
These high-profile scandals reveal a deeper system where public funds are mismanaged, oversight is weakened and political patronage often overrides accountability, raising serious concerns about the normalization of systemic corruption. Avoiding the fate of failing states requires more than outrage — it demands stronger enforcement, genuine political will, resilient institutions and a citizenry committed to making integrity the national expectation rather than the exception.