Unfortunately, there is basically no real foolproof plan that can stop corruption. Fighting corruption is much more complicated than you might think. Fortunately, most countries did manage to make great progress to curb corruption. However, the fight is still going on. Cielo Gonzalez Villa mentions below some ways in which governments and citizens can fight corruption. You may want to support them.
End Impunity
Law enforcement is really important in order to lower the effects of corruption. If the corrupt are actively punished and impunity is broken, this can drastically reduce the cases we see. In order to have successful enforcement, we need a really strong legal framework and law enforcement branches that are not connected to politics. If the court system is effective and independent, corruption is fought. Various initiatives are now in place to support the court system and end corruption but they have to be supported by citizens.
Finance Management And Public Administration Reforms
Having reforms that focus on strengthening auditing agencies and improving financial management did do wonders in numerous countries in curbing corruption. For instance, one of the reforms that can be mentioned is budget information disclosure. This prevents misappropriation of resources and waste. We have Transparency International Sri Lanka, as an example, that promotes participatory and transparent budgeting through the training of the local communities in order to comment on local government proposed budgets.
Promote Information Access And Transparency
The countries that were successful at curbing corruption have had a really long tradition of press freedom, government openness, access to information and transparency. You need access to information in order to allow government bodies to respond faster. At the same time, this improves the participation of the public in active debates going on in the country regards everything. Corruption is hard to be strong in the event that people know what is happening and governments are transparent.
Empowering The Citizens
One of the important things to remember about curbing corruption is that citizens have to be supported and strengthened. As an example, the community monitoring initiatives did contribute in the past to corruption detection, did reduce leakage of funds and even improved public service quality and quantity.
One of the easiest ways in which citizens are empowered is to allow them to monitor the local elections. This is a simple act that lets people know that they can do many things to fight corruption.
Close The International Loopholes
If the corrupt public officials of the world cannot access the financial system available at an international level, it becomes really difficult to actually be corrupt. Most financial centers are now in need of ways in which banks can be stopped from cooperating with offshore financial centers, all with the purpose of absorbing money flow that is illicit.
It is really hard for corruption to exist if there are really good anti-money laundering laws in place. As a citizen or as a politician, the best thing that can be done to stop mass scale corruption is to close these international loopholes that offer access to funds.