Corruption and climate change: what happens when they meet?

HALIFAX

Conferencia; ASAC 2022 conference; 2022

Administrative Sciences Association of Canada

Abstract Heavy rains in January 2007 and March 2015 were said to have caused many bridges to collapse within a few days in Tucumán, Argentina, and announcements of funds for rebuilding followed immediately. The press reported the bridges were constructed with funds flowing from a federal government account whose authorities were convicted of corruption and sentenced to prison years latter the corruption scheme that was established in 2004. The news media suggested that politicians and local businessmen agreed to a 5% kickback in public works contracts. Worldwide, corruption costs USD2 trillion per year or 20% of all government procurements, with bribery and favouritism being common forms of corruption. We contribute to the accounting literature discussion on how corruption uses the force of nature to perpetuate itself in a context of weak control mechanisms and low transparency. The case illustrates how government officials use natural hazards turned into disasters to maintain an indefinitive state of emergency allowing two negative practices to perpetuate: grant contracts without public tender and contractors cut corners to ensure that the construction needs repairs or reconstructions soon.