Corruption. A lot of people aren’t sure what the word means, let alone what it has to do with them. Let’s start with a definition.

Corruption is when people in positions of entrusted power abuse their power for their own personal gain.

Take, for example, the minister who gives a certain company a big government contract - not because they are the best, but because they paid the biggest bribe. This minister isn’t acting in the best interest of his constituents - the votes who have entrusted him to make decisions on their behalf.

This is corruption.

Corruption costs all of us, whether we realise it or not. Some of the costs are massive, like keeping millions of people trapped in extreme poverty. Some are more subtle, like the slow erosion of people’s faith in their leaders.

Estimates have put the total annual value of bribes at US $1 trillion. To put that in perspective, wealthy governments spend only one tenth of that on development aid for poorer countries.

That one trillion shows how much money is wasted or diverted. The potential exists for development to increase exponentially.

But corruption means that money that could build highways, feed hungry mouths or fight HIV / AIDS is lost.

The worst part is that this squandered money goes to buy government decisions that only benefit the briber. Take a second to think about the cumulative effect of thousands of decisions bought that way. It’s frightening.

It means a government bit by bit, starts ignoring the interest of its people.

And who suffers? The people. Especially the poorest.

It’s time it stopped.