INVESTIGATING OFFICIALS: WHERE TO START

Investigate the public behavior of officials and lapses in codes of conduct
Investigating officials should not be limited to probing their decisions, assets, lifestyles, and acquisitions. Journalists and other researchers can also venture into examining their behavior both during and after office hours. This is particularly so for officials in positions where high standards of behavior are expected. The foremost example of this is the judiciary. The Code of Judicial Conduct prescribes that judges conduct themselves in a manner above suspicion.

Observing the public or social behavior of officials provides clues as to who is doing the influence peddling. While ethical codes are more lax for elected officials, they should not be exempt from an examination of their public behavior.

Investigate friends, relatives, and cronies
Nepotism and cronyism are among the most pernicious forms of corruption. Favorable treatment given to family and friends may include a government job, a public works contract, subsidized housing, a loan from a state bank, even leaked questions in a government exam. Such favors are often accepted as the norm and officials think that rewarding family and supporters is part of the perks that come with a government post. It is this widespread thinking that leads to abuses of public office and of the public trust.

Corrupt officials typically distribute the profits from, and opportunities for, malfeasance among their kin and cronies. Even if office-holders are themselves clean, their family and friends can still use their connections for various forms of malfeasance.

Investigators of corruption should therefore be adept at unraveling “the ties that bind.” One of the strongest ties is family. It is important to know how officials are related to each other or to businesspeople who will benefit from, or be harmed by, legislation or government regulation.

Other ties are those formed in schools, fraternities, civic clubs, and professional associations. Religious and ethnic or linguistic- group affiliation are also strong ties. These often give clues as to why an official is favoring a particular businessperson or firm.

Investigate intermediaries
In the course of its many investigations, the PCIJ has come across the role played by intermediaries — either middlemen or brokers — in corrupt transactions. A company or individual that does business with the government or is subject to official regulation inevitably searches for connections to the powerful. For this reason, a network of intermediaries or intercessors sooner or later forms around a wielder of power or an interpreter of government rules, be he or she a mayor, police chief, district highways supervisor, or even a Supreme Court justice.

Very often private individuals do not transact directly with officials. Litigants and lawyers, for example, may go through the clerk of court or other members of the judicial staff. Public works contractors rarely meet with congressmen themselves when they try to negotiate a slice of pork barrel funds; they deal with congressional staff. Demands for payoffs, commissions, or grease money are sometimes coursed through trusted relatives, who are also sometimes employed as secretaries, chiefs of staff, or consultants of officials. Following the trail of corruption, therefore, entails unraveling the network of intermediaries and brokers that surround a corrupt official.

This is an excerpt from the PCIJ’s book, Investigating Corruption: A Do-It Yourself Guide. ORDER NOW!

• Official biodata
• Newspapers, magazines, and newsletters
• Biographies, family histories, genealogies, and Who's Who Directories and yearbooks
• Listings of trade and professional organizations
• Statements of assets
• Land records
• Corporate records
• Vehicle registration records
• Licenses and permits (for firearms, business, etc.)
• School records
• Civil registry records (birth, marriage, etc.)
• Voter registration records
• Record of campaign expenditures
• Speeches and papers
• Immigration (arrival and departure) records