政府雇员有时会接受贿赂，损公肥私，或玩忽职守，将为公众服务抛诸脑后。这种现象在美国也时有发生，但是美国政府能够采取强有力的措施打击腐败，严惩犯罪分子。

例如有退伍军人医院的员工盗窃病人信息并提交虚假的报税单，还有联邦政府工作人员利用政府的残疾人计划进行欺诈，结果他们都受到指控和严厉的惩治。

腐败现象会削弱政府为公民服务的能力，降低人们对政府的信心。

打击腐败最有效的方法是加强监督。许多国家都设立了一些专职的监督机构，负责考察政府的表现，调查不当行为并采取法律措施惩治腐败。

美国有71家政府机构都设立了督察长办公室（Office of the Inspector General），负责防止浪费、欺诈和滥用职权。为了保障其独立性，督察长办公室直接向本机构负责人和美国国会(U.S. Congress)汇报工作。这样，机构内部没有任何人 ，包括机构负责人在内，可以阻止督察长进行调查，也无法对调查结果施加不正当的影响。

去年，各督察长办公室共查处了 5,500例腐败案件 ，为纳税人节省的资金高达450亿美元。

美国并非是唯一积极打击腐败的国家。大约133个国家都有类似美国督察长办公室的监察机构。

如果政府廉洁奉公，贫穷人口受益最大。最近，国际透明组织(Transparency International)对非洲撒哈拉以南（sub-Saharan）地区28个国家 进行了问卷调查。调查发现，在接受调查的人口中，回答必需行贿才能办事的贫穷群体是富裕群体的两倍。这是因为较为贫穷的群体较少有可能获得私人服务，更需要依靠政府提供的学校、医疗和其他服务。

美国总统欧巴马(President Obama)指出，腐败阻碍了经济和公民生活各个方面的进展。解决这一问题需要整个国家，包括领导人和普通公民，共同革故鼎新，移风易俗。

Here’s how to root out government corruption

Sometimes a government employee takes a bribe, or steals from the public, or fails to properly serve the public. That happens in the U.S. too, but in America the government takes strong measures to root out corruption and punish the guilty.

Just ask the veterans hospital employees who stole patient information and filed fraudulent tax returns. Or the federal workers who defrauded a government disability program.

All were charged with crimes, and all were convicted.

Corruption depletes a government’s ability to help its citizens, and it saps citizens’ faith in their government.

The most effective way to fight corruption is with oversight. Many nations accomplish this through special agencies that monitor government performance, investigate improper behavior and initiate legal measures to punish the corrupt.

In the U.S., 71 government agencies have an Office of the Inspector General (IG). These “IGs” combat fraud, waste and abuse. To assure their independence, each reports both to its agency head and to the U.S. Congress. That way no one in an agency — including its head — can stop an inspector from undertaking an investigation, or unduly influence its results.

Last year, federal inspectors general secured 5,500 corruption convictions and saved taxpayers up to $45 billion.

The U.S. is hardly alone in battling corruption. Some 133 countries have ombudsman institutions that work like the American IGs.

Poor citizens can benefit the most when government is not corrupt. Recently, Transparency International surveyed 28 sub-Saharan African countries and discovered that poor respondents were twice as likely as wealthier ones to find bribe-paying necessary. That’s because poorer citizens have less access to private services, so they rely all the more on government-provided schools, hospitals and other services.

President Obama agrees. Corruption, he says, “holds back every aspect of economic and civil life.” Addressing it “requires a commitment by the entire nation — leaders and citizens — to change habits and to change culture.”