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As the foundation for understanding the dynamics of the construction sector's corruption, this study examines building contractors' experiences of the stifling of moral, communal and cultural values in the name of modern social and religious principles.

This study's objective was accomplished in two phases. First, a theoretical model was constructed. The theory is then tested using structural equation modeling in the second section. The theory suggests that, based on social norm and institutional theories, social disquietude and religious manipulation influence the interaction and types of corruption in the Nigerian construction sector. From this theory, it was deduced that social malaise (hypothesis 1) and religious manipulations (hypothesis 2) mediate the processes and forms of corruption in the construction sector. To validate the hypotheses, a structural equation model (SEM) was developed and tested.

Native intelligence, new values, social quests and poverty are the social malaises that are profoundly responsible for corruption manifestations in the construction industry. The findings confirmed that construction stakeholders are heavily influenced financially and spiritually by religious organizations. Construction stakeholders engage in corrupt activities as a result of the ravenousness and self-interest bestowed on them by religious manipulation and the significant contribution of social malaise. The study admits that social engineering is required to integrate local wisdom and values into Nigerian society in order to mitigate the negative consequences of social unrest and religious manipulations.

This study has contributed to a branch of the literature on corruption in the construction industry that aims to identify the hidden factors that drive the sector's corruption dynamics. It has shown how many different problems in society and religious beliefs can make building contractors more likely to be dishonest. In order to improve project delivery, this study emphasized the importance of investigating the relationship between religious affiliations, religious doctrines and domination and religious competition on corruption in the construction industry.

Following the findings of this study, the majority of construction stakeholders place their trust in unmerited favor, “spirit money,” prosperity gospels and the payment of offerings and “seed money” to win contracts. This implies that construction stakeholders will most likely be deceptive in their dealings, increasing the quantity of certified work, increasing variation claims and engaging in collusion. This is because their faith in inconceivable favors and the exchange of offerings for blessings would lead them to perceive fraudulent practices as a favor.

This study is unique in that it sought to determine whether construction stakeholders' corrupt tendencies stem from religious manipulations and complex social systems.

While corruption has long been recognized as a destructive social problem, the subject has not yet been given much attention in the literature of the management of procurement of infrastructure projects in Ghana. The purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss corruption practices inherent in public procurement of infrastructural projects in Ghana with the aim of identifying corruption related challenges that must be addressed in order to actualize the expected economic gains of infrastructural projects.

Drawing extensively on existing literature and published data, the methodology adopted for the paper consisted of multi‐stage critical review of pertinent literature; review of 2007 Annual Report of the Public Procurement Authority and review of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663). The study assumes value‐laden axiological philosophy, where the values and experiences of the authors provided the basis for the discussion.

Conflict of interest, bribery, embezzlement, kickbacks, tender manipulation and fraud are observed corruption practices in the Ghanaian infrastructure projects delivery system. The severity of corruption practices have intensified the search for more innovative means of delivering infrastructure projects that will achieve value for money. In the pursuit to control corruption practices, this would require constitution of a sound procurement system and pro‐social equity policies that would foster good governance, corporate social responsibility, transparency, accountability, judicious public expenditure and national progress. The Public Procurement Act 2003 (Act 663) is observed to proffer solutions for these underlying constructs but not without challenges.

The nature of the research is review and explanatory without any empirical analysis to support the discussions and thus the results cannot be generalized on a broader context of public procurement practice in Ghana.

Implementation of sound procurement performance measurements would be imperative in the bid to curb corruption practices. The paper suggested a number of business approaches to combat corrupt practices in Ghana, which are explained in terms of political, psychological, technical, operational and retaliatory measures. In this paper, it is proposed that knowledge about and debating corruption related issues is just as important to the modern public procurement as are the abilities to creatively and logically introduce monitoring systems when planning, executing and completing projects.

The work is novel providing meaningful insights into conceptual basis for a detailed empirical analysis. Being a pioneering study, further research tailored to compare the extent of corruption practices in various sectors of the economy of Ghana would be novel.

This paper aims to explore the current trends in corruption and investigate the characteristics of corporate gift policies and their role in preventing bribery.

This is a descriptive study based on primary data from a recent sample of Canadian companies’ codes of conduct and secondary data from recent corruption surveys published by non-governmental organisations.

This study shows that 25% of all private and public corruption cases generate financial damages of more than US$1m per case and that 50% of all investigated fraud cases are corruption cases (ACFE, 2022). Furthermore, the Western Europe and EU region is perceived as least corrupt, whereas Sub-Saharan Africa is perceived as the most corrupt region (Transparency International, 2022). However, bribery is fairly common in nine EU countries where 10% or more of public service users bribed public officials to influence their decisions (Transparency International, 2021). Results from primary data show that 9.3% of firms put a total ban on gifts given to governmental officials, whereas 35.2% require a superior’s approval and only 5.5% state a dollar limit for the gift. Results also show that not a single firm prohibits the giving of gifts to non-governmental stakeholders or the receiving of gifts from any type of stakeholder. This paper argues that gifts can bias the recipient’s judgement and improperly influence future business decisions based on the gift’s subjective value, nature and context.

This paper extends previous research by examining the characteristics of corporate gift policies. It also helps organisations improve their gift policies in an effort to reduce corruption.

It is the first paper to investigate the characteristics of corporate gift policies and their role in preventing corruption.

The phenomenal spread of privatization initiatives in sub‐Saharan Africa since the 1980s created the impression that public infrastructure divestiture is a shortcut to economic growth and development. This has proven not to be the case due to the lack of enabling institutional prerequisites. It appears the case that while much faith is put in the potency of the free market, little thought is generally given to the institutions required for markets to perform their function. Accordingly, this paper discusses some of the embedded institutional failures that have made free‐market development policies a mirage in many sub‐Saharan African countries. Principally among these are corruption and government failures. To check these, it makes more sense to re‐direct attention to the sources of failure rather than the free market ideological thrust.

This paper aims at reflecting on the role of accounting and accountability mechanisms in pre-COVID-19 conditions and how it may evolve in “new normal”, post-COVID-19 conditions.

Moving from the papers in this special issue, the authors draw on the literature on the social construction and reflective approaches to understand pre- and post-COVID-19 events and the role of accounting therein.

The “new normal” may exacerbated the difficulty of public sector organizations to manage the uncertainties and risks associated to the new context. While “old” wicked issues remain, such as social inclusion, poverty and corruption, new ones come. The authors speculate on the “new” and “old” roles accounting and accountability can play to support governments.

The paper contributes by setting new research avenues for future studies in a post-COVID-19 era.

This chapter deals with the question of how anti-corruption norms can emerge in authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regimes that actively suppress social dissent and protest. The chapter examines the capacity of Russian opposition movements to create a sustained anti-corruption discourse and to shape political governance. When it comes to addressing corruption through social action in the context of Russia, the situation does not often seem conducive to concerted opposition activity. Nevertheless, even though opposition movements repeatedly fail to impact political decision-making or elite practices, they are not exercises in futility. The chapter concludes that the anti-corruption discourse can be effectively utilized by the Russian opposition movements to unite its efforts and vocalize their demands in terms of democratic governance norms. Continually repressive governmental measures are creating dangerous public spaces, where massive and violent confrontations are increasingly likely to occur. As the opposition continues to find its voice, challenge elite corruption and vocalize its desires for democratic governance norms, the continuing demands for policies to be reflective of public interest (rather than interests of the powerful elites) will not abate. The anti-corruption discourse can play a powerful unifying role for the opposition given the endemic nature of corruption in today’s Russia.

The purpose of this paper is to explain Singapore’s success in combating corruption and to identify the lessons for policy makers concerned with enhancing the anti-corruption measures in their countries.

The paper provides a brief literature review and analysis of Singapore’s policy context before explaining Singapore’s success in combating corruption and identifying the lessons for policy makers to enhance the effectiveness of the anti-corruption measures in their countries.

Singapore’s success in combating corruption can be attributed to the political will of the People’s Action Party government and the effectiveness of the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau in investigating all corruption cases and enforcing the anti-corruption laws impartially, without fear or favour. Extrapolating from Singapore’s success, policy makers in other countries can learn these lessons: the critical importance of political will; addressing the causes of corruption and learning from past mistakes; establishing and supporting an independent anti-corruption agency with adequate resources; enforcing the anti-corruption laws impartially but not selectively against the government’s political opponents; and combating corruption is a marathon requiring perseverance and sustained effort.

Scholars, policy makers and anti-corruption practitioners will be interested in learning how Singapore has succeeded in combating corruption as well as the relevant lessons for policy makers.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the success and challenges of the government of Botswana in combating corruption, and the lessons that policy makers may draw from this experience.

A range of sources are used including on-line materials from Botswana Government websites, DCEC annual reports, reports and on-line materials of international organisations, press articles, conference papers, two theses, articles in journals and chapters in edited collections.

The paper considers the factors that contribute to the success of the Botswana Government in combating corruption. It finds that the role of the anti-corruption body, the Directorate of Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) has been crucial in this endeavour, including its investigative and enforcement work, and also its prevention and education programmes. The progress in combating corruption can also be attributed to procurement reform, measures to reduce red tape and bureaucratic procedures affecting businesses, competition regulation to reduce collusion and bribery, political and parliamentary accountability, and not least political will of Botswana’s leaders to stamp out corruption. In addition, challenges facing the anti-corruption programme are considered, including capacity constraints in the DCEC and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions, and the failure of the courts in some cases to bring to book those in high places who have allegedly committed corruption offences. The paper identifies a number of lessons that can be drawn from Botswana’s experience. In conclusion, the paper points to the need for political will to be sustained in light of evidence that it may have recently weakened.

The paper provides lessons for policy makers in tackling corruption.

The paper is a further contribution to the existing scholarly literature on the anti-corruption programme in Botswana.

In recognition of corruption as a major obstacle to the development processes of poor countries, the search for effective strategies in combating the phenomenon in developing countries has become a major preoccupation of the international donor community, particularly since the early 1990s. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of “political will” in combating corruption in Hong Kong, Singapore and Ghana with the view to drawing significant lessons for all developing and transition countries in their anticorruption crusades.

The findings in this paper are based on an extensive review of relevant literature and personal experiences in Ghana.

This paper concludes that controlling corruption in a sustained manner requires a consistent demonstration of genuine commitment on the part of the top political elite towards the eradication of the menace. Where the commitment of the top political leadership to the goal of eradicating corruption in a country is weak, as has been the case in Ghana, governments are only likely to engage in “zero tolerance for corruption” talk but continue to play a “tolerant corruption” game. Anticorruption reforms, in this regard, are bound to fail.

The paper highlights a number of lessons from the successful anticorruption crusades of Singapore and Hong Kong that are significant for Ghana and other developing countries in their fight against corruption. These include the need for anticorruption reform initiatives to be participatory and inclusive of all stakeholders including public and private sectors as well as civil society; the need to provide adequate budgets and staff for specialized anticorruption agencies and grant them independence in the execution of their mandates; and the need to establish effective mechanisms for: providing positive incentives for those who comply with anticorruption laws; and exposing and sanctioning compromised individuals and institutions.

Whilst studies on the role of political will in combating corruption in developing countries abound, most of these have either not provided in‐depth country experiences or relied on single country cases. One major departure of this paper from extant literature is its cross‐country comparative nature.