Corruption in construction and disasters caused by natural hazards
Citation: Sanderson D, Patel SS, Loosemore M, et al. Corruption and disasters in the built environment: a literature review. Disasters. 2022;46:928-45.
Language: Abstract available in AR, EN, ZH. Full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: Judith Neilson Foundation (Australia).
What is this? Corruption can affect post-disaster recovery efforts and perpetuate vulnerability to future disasters.
In this systematic review, the authors searched for peer-reviewed articles on corruption and the built environment in disasters caused by natural hazards. They restricted their searches to publications between 1990 and 2020. The authors conducted the search in January 2020. They found 59 papers from Australia, Bulgaria, China, Haiti, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Japan, Liberia, Nigeria, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, USA, and Venezuela.
What was found: The authors found that opportunities for corruption included economic development, inequality, poverty, abuse of power, poor governance, and government wages. Governance issues were related to oversight, incompetence, weak controls, low capacity, insufficient budgets, limited preparedness planning, and competency in recovery efforts. Other factors were the normalisation of corruption, lack of public resources, poorly paid officials, and public consignment.
Within the context of construction, opportunities for corruption were related to relationships that were too close, low ethical standards, industrial and working conditions, poor role models, and inadequate sanctions.
Implications: The authors stated that the impact of corruption is unequal, as it benefits the wealthy, while leaving consequences for the poor.
Other considerations: The authors of the review discussed their findings in the context of place of residence, socioeconomic status, and social capital.
This summary was prepared by Beirut Ibrahim, checked by Briann Mensour, and finalized by William Summerskill.