Corruption

23. Corruption is often among the causes of crushing public debt, and is therefore a serious problem which needs to be considered carefully. “Respecting no boundaries, [corruption] involves persons, public and private structures of power and the governing elites”. It creates a situation which “encourages impunity and the illicit accumulation of money, lack of trust in political institutions, especially the administration of justice and public investments, which are not always transparent, equal for all and effective”.( ⁶²)

Here I wish to recall what I wrote in the Message for the 1998 World Day of Peace — that the plague of corruption needs to be denounced and combatted forcefully by those in authority, with “the generous support of all citizens, sustained by a firm moral conscience”.( ⁶³) Appropriate supervisory bodies and transparency in economic and financial transactions are helpful and in many cases stop the spread of corruption, the dire consequences of which fall in the main upon the weakest and most marginal members of society. It is also the poor who are the first to suffer as a result of delays and inefficiency, by not being properly defended, because of structural deficiencies, especially when corruption affects the administration of justice itself.