Institutional corruption is the phenomenon in public bodies of placing the protection of reputation above fidelity to the truth, especially in the context of an independent or

public inquiry A tribunal of inquiry is an official review of events or actions ordered by a government body. In many common law countries, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and Canada, such a public inquiry differs from a royal commission in that ...

. Institutional corruption is differentiated from

corruption Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...

by the institution's willingness to frustrate or slow the work of independent formal inquiries, even after official reports and documentation recognise that such an inquiry is necessary. Institutional corruption is not limited to national-scale institutions. It can be as small as a single recommendation of a report rejected because an institution wishes not to admit meaningful change, or the misreporting of statistics in the

Stafford Hospital scandal The Stafford Hospital scandal concerns poor care and high mortality rates amongst patients at the Stafford Hospital, Stafford, England, during the first decade of the 21st century. The hospital was run by the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Tru ...

Examples

United Kingdom

* Independent Inquiry into the Murder of Daniel Morgan—2021 report, criticizing the Metropolitan Police. * Windrush scandal—2020 report, criticizing the Home Office *

Hillsborough disaster The Hillsborough disaster was a fatal Crowd collapses and crushes, human crush during a association football, football match at Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, on 15 April 1989. It occurred during an FA Cup semi-fina ...

—reports in 2012, 2016 and 2017, criticizing

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. I ...

and West Midlands police forces *

—2013 report, criticizing

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust was a NHS foundation trust which managed two hospitals in Staffordshire, England: * Stafford Hospital - acute hospital with approximately 350 inpatient beds, opened in 1983, Now renamed County Hospita ...

Ireland

Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation The Mother and Baby Homes Commission of Investigation (officially the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes and certain related matters) was a judicial commission of investigation, established in 2015 by the Irish government ...

—2021 report, criticizing

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

mother-and-baby homes and the

Irish State Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. ...

Canada

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC; french: Commission de vérité et réconciliation du Canada []) was a truth and reconciliation commission active in Canada from 2008 to 2015, organized by the parties of the Indian Residen ...

—2015 report, criticizing the Canadian Indian residential school system, the

Canadian federal government The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown-in ...

, and the

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal police, federal and national police service of ...

References

{{Reflist Corruption