Abstract

This article introduces concepts of corruption and how they translate into state crimes against democracy and economic state crimes against democracy. This article argues for an approach to corruption that goes beyond individual psychology to consider the systemic purposeful actions of dominant elites to protect and advance their interests. This article also contends that contemporary accounting is enveloped within a corroding political, economic and financial system that advances the interests of neoliberal elites.

5. Conclusion

What is required is an environment where government based economic actions or outsourcing or PPP’s could be used without jeopardizing the public interest. This article calls for an end to neoliberal capitalism’s penchant for disaster capitalism (Klein, 2007), the purposeful inducement of crises and the ‘crucifixion economics’ (Saul, 2005) that actively weaken government and forces deregulation. Roberts and Scapens (1995) emphasise that ‘transparency’ is too often treated as a neutral component of accountability and as the natural corrective for ‘corruption’ and any other form of criminality. Roberts (2009) points out that making something visible changes what is rendered transparent, shapes organisational reality and individual and group identities and may lead to purposely misrepresenting accountability structures without addressing underlying corruption or criminality.