Corruption Evolution in the Last Decade and the Impact on Public Institutions

Over time, a systemic view of corruption developed, with early modern literature characterizing this phenomenon as a dysfunctional element, rooted in institutions, people’s behavior, and their habits, manifesting itself in different ways, such as bribery, embezzlement, fraud, nepotism, undue influence, with the aim of gaining private resources against the common good. Mostly, corruption affects people’s confidence in public institutions, undermines the sense of justice, and the quality of public administration is generally questioned. Corruption can be understood by referring to different contexts, starting from the situation of a multinational company offering a bribe for the award of an important contract to build a public road despite promoting a bid below market standards, from the case of politicians redirecting public funds to self-interest areas, depriving parts of society that really need that money of funding, up to the manager of the public institution who places various close ones in key positions, or up to the situation of the first-line civil servant who collects inappropriate benefits from ordinary citizens for the provision of basic services, with the result that vulnerable people are most affected by corruption. Therefore, this paper presents a comprehensive review of the causes of corruption and how the management of public institutions is affected by this phenomenon. In this study, the information collected from OECD, Transparency International Index, Global Corruption Barometer, and from Human Development Reports was analyzed, the result indicating an increase in the incidence of the phenomenon of corruption by up to 65% compared to the last decade. Bribery is one of the most widespread forms of manifestation, with an increased incidence, especially in the area of Eastern Europe. Also, a bibliometric approach highlighted the relationship between corruption acts and public institutions and provided valuable information and extended knowledge to industry practitioners and policymakers.