Corruption in Nepal

Running head: CORRUPTION IN NEPAL
Corruption in Nepal
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1CORRUPTION IN NEPAL
For more than a decade, the problem of corruption has been holding the centre
position of the political agenda in most of the developing nations. It is a very complicated and
multifaceted phenomena that has many different causes and impacts and with the same, it
takes on different functions and forms in different context. Corruption is widespread and has
many manifestations as well (Nuijten and Anders 2017). It is something that is practised in
near about every levels of the society. However, corruption is considered to be the main
cause of underdevelopment in Nepal. The business sectors in Nepal, along with the politician
there and the Nepali bureaucracy, are all very seriously affected by this phenomena. This
essay is going to elaborate on discussing about the different form of corruption in Nepal and
the strategies that are implemented by the government to minimise the level of corruption in
this country.
Corruption is defined as “misuse of power”. It is one of very serious problems that the
Nepalese are facing in modern world of globalisation. According to Ayal, Hochman and
Ariely (2016), corruption is referred to as the practise of immoral, dishonest and unlawful
behaviour by the people who are holding the power and are using it for making money in
dishonest manner. The definition of corruption has been explained differently by different
scholars. It ranges from the broad terms of “misusing power and authority” to “decay of
moral”. Stealing the money of people is corruption. Adopting an incompetent man to a post is
corruption. Using influence over the other people for getting something done is also a
corruption. Corruption is widespread and is uncontrolled in Nepal and it is evident from the
report of one of the international non-governmental organisation, the ‘Transparency
International’. Each year the organisation publishes the CPI (Corruption Perceptions Index)
regarding the condition of corruption in different nations. As per the report of 2017, Nepal
ranks 122nd position with the CPI score of 31 out of 100 out of 180 countries (Campagnolo et
al. 2018). In 2016, it was ranked at 131st with a CPI score of 29. Haiti was the most corrupted

2CORRUPTION IN NEPAL
nation. However, in context to Nepal, corruption is the first most problem and unemployment
is the second one. Likewise, Denmark, Singapore, and Finland are the other nations that falls
under the top five corrupted countries in the world.
Nepal is a highly corrupted country. There are different causes of corruption in this
country and the most significant of all are the lack of political stability, accountability,
transparency, responsibility and adequate public awareness. It is also because of the powerful
and strong network of the corrupted people of Nepal. Also, there is a lack of appropriate rule
and law in country. These automatically led to harmful and bad results. There are several
different forms of corruption and the main forms are fraud, extortion and bribery. However, it
is to note that some of the very basic characteristics of corruption can be easily identifies by
means of these concepts. Bribery is very common in Nepal. It refers to the payments that are
demanded or needed for making things passed smoother and favourably by the state
bureaucracy (Jones, Oven and Wisner 2016). Bribe refers to a fixed sum of amount, or a
certain percentage of contact etc. that is usually paid to the state officials who have the power
to make the contracts on behalf of the state. They may also distribute those benefits to the
companies, clients, individuals or businessmen. It is also to mention that pervasive corruption
is the main challenge for the international companies Nepal. Facilitation payments and
bribery are widely spread in the public procurement (Jensen and Malesky 2018). The level of
corruption is also reducing the level of competitiveness in this nation and at the same time, is
increasing the costs of start-ups as well. Furthermore, even the courts are corrupted. This has
caused an overall inefficiency in the very sector. Judges frequently accept the bribes from the
companies and individuals for some favourable rulings. With the same, about three-fourths of
the citizens perceive that the judiciary in Nepal is corrupt. The next form of corruption is
embezzlement. It refers to stealing the public resources by the public officials (Spink, Moyer
and Whelan 2016). This is one of the other form of misuse of the public funds. It takes place