Corruption in Public Administration and Opportunities for Improving Performance through the Application of Quality Management

Abstract

In transitional countries such as the Republic of Serbia, the modernization of public administration is often conditioned by the need to establish a higher level of accountability, transparency, and institutional efficiency. Within this context, the phenomenon of corruption emerges as one of the central issues requiring thorough examination and resolution. Corruption in public administration represents a decades-long problem that has not been adequately addressed—seemingly more due to a lack of political and societal will than to the absence of mechanisms for its resolution. Theoretical commitments to combating corruption have rarely progressed to the next phase, in which mechanisms for identifying and sanctioning corrupt practices would be implemented consistently and fairly. Over the years, various political actors have resorted to “public” and allegedly transparent condemnation of selected individuals within the government or public administration, often for the purpose of gaining political points, rather than engaging in a systemic and equitable approach to solving the problem. Even these isolated cases, intended to serve as examples of anti-corruption efforts, were not conducted transparently and remained shrouded in secrecy from the perspective of ordinary citizens. The deeply rooted problem of corruption cannot be resolved through public stigmatization of selected individuals, but rather through the systemic structuring of public administration operations and oversight—establishing transparency, traceability, clearly defined authority, and accountability.