Institutional Governance And Corruption:Case Study Of Zimbabwe

In Zimbabwe,the corruption rate in the public sector is unbecoming,all the other significant problems the nation is experiencing;debt crisis,spiral in unemployment rates,increasing poverty rates,social inequality are somehow correlated with the level of corruption.A plethora of research has been conducted on public institutions corruption in Zimbabwe,but most of the researches where asking "why are public officials in public institutions corrupt",numerous anti-corruption policies were implemented but corruption remained resilient.The focus on"individuals" has shunned the contribution of an "institute"in any corrupt act.This paper is shifting the question from the individual to the institute,the aim is to understand how governance in public institution either creates or closes corruption opportunity gaps that individuals can possibly exploit or how institutional governance motivate individual(un)ethical behavior.The three indicators of governance(?)ethical culture(?)institutional system and(?)accountability are used to measure the governance in three selected public institutions in Zimbabwe,one which is perceived to be most corrupt,the other more corrupt and the other less corrupt.Results in this study suggest that there is direct correlation between institutional governance and corruption,poor institutional governance indicated by a poor ethical culture,a dysfunctional integrity system and with no accountability create more opportunities gaps for corruption and does not encourage individuals to make ethical decisions,the vice versa is true for a good institutional governance characterized by a sustainable ethical culture,high accountability levels and a concrete integrity system.The recommendation in this paper so as to enhance institutional governance in public institutions in Zimbabwe is the ultimate implementation of already existing ethical practices that build a concrete integrity system that is apt to cultivate an integrity culture and inj ect accountability and having an independent integrity department that solely focuses on integrity issues.