Dr David Olusegun Sotola

COVID-19, Crisis Responses, and Corruption in the Health Sector

Corruption remains a pervasive development problem, especially in developing countries where despite decades of anticorruption efforts, there is still a high prevalence of corruption acts. Covid responses have led to massive corruption scandals in ways that have undermined the effectiveness of some of the countermeasures. Research on Covid and corruption is limited, and more research is needed to understand the nature of corruption during a pandemic. Are these new forms of corruption or are they different manifestations of existing well-known corruption forms, and what in specific terms account for the anticorruption failures? Evidence is sparsely available, and a preliminary investigation of the literature database suggests the few that exist are scattered and dispersed across fields and in need of consolidation. This study proposes to first, undertake an evidence scoping/mapping to show a summary state of affairs as well as guide scholarly action, secondly analyse covid corruption case studies.