Corruption offenses, especially bribery violations, are often extremely difficult to prove. In the real world of limited resources, we know that we can only detect, investigate and prosecute a small percentage of those officials who are corrupt. Thus, corruption is truly an area where the proverbial ounce of prevention is worth much more than a pound of cure. By focusing our attention and resources on areas like government hiring and promotion, employee compensation, codes of ethical conduct, internal controls, and auditing procedures we can prevent much more corruption than we would ever be able to prosecute. In the end, we must acknowledge morality is an essential foundation of law.
Governments are reflective of the societies they serve.
Even with strong law enforcement and preventive measures, there will still be those tempted by corruption, and those willing to corrupt. We must come to a recognition, personally and culturally, that corruption is not just a violation of law, not just an economic disadvantage, and not merely a political problem, but that it is morally wrong. One of the most interesting points from the presentations by religious leaders at this Forum and at the First Global Forum in Washington was that bribery is fundamentally incompatible with the ethical values of every one of the world's great religions. Many of us here are justice and security officials, charged with combating the corruption of others. Through our actions we enforce the law, but through our conduct and the conduct of those who work with us, we set a moral example for society.