Jake's View | Problem of corruption lies with a state economy
Public sector contracts are the leading source of corruption, not private firms, as China shows
In one of the highest level prosecutions of a Communist Party official since China's corruption crackdown began 18 months ago, a former economic planner made an appeal for free markets as he admitted he took millions of dollars in bribes to approve projects.
Liu Tienan told a courtroom on Wednesday that a more market orientated economy that diluted the power of officials like himself could help China crimp corruption.
I have written a column for this newspaper for 15 years and any regular reader of my thoughts must recognise by now that I would immediately nod on reading the excerpt above and say, "That's right. That's right."
It is indeed right. Corruption is a public sector phenomenon. In market-driven economic sectors there is no room for it. The margins are too tight. You look for it where people are given oversight of big projects but not constrained by tight spending controls, which is the public sector.
Even that self-appointed international watchdog of corrupt practices, Transparency International, publishes data to demonstrate the point although it shies away from drawing the obvious conclusion as this would run counter to its bias of placing the greatest blame on private corporations.