Despite decades of effort, corruption scandals still plague the mining industry and represent a significant barrier to public support for mining developments. Why do formal governance systems fail and how can anti-corruption processes be more effectively embedded throughout a mining organisation?OHS reform in the mining industry provides a useful comparison to investigate what kinds of strategies might have more hope of working to support embedding sound anti-corruption approaches in mining organisations. While there have been failures in the OHS domain as well, the mining industry takes OHS much more seriously now than even 20 years ago. One important strength has been the shift in focus from careless workers to underlying systemic risk. This has allowed mining enterprises to address risks before they cause harm and supported technological change in the industry.Unfortunately, the equivalent focus on systemic risk has not occurred in corruption reform. Despite efforts to increase transparency, such as the EITI, reforms still focus on efforts to identify corrupt individuals and prosecute these bad apples. Corruption risk management is still in its infancy and does not receive the same support or attention as corruption prosecutions.
Afghanistan provides a telling example of the challenges in controlling the risks of corruption. It epitomises a jurisdiction with apparent good intentions to address corruption, nevertheless facing significant barriers to operationalising them. A recent corruption risk assessment of Afghanistans Ministry of Mines and Petroleum demonstrates the significant challenges of addressing corruption risks rather than corruption cases. CITATION:Shaw, A J, 2019. Bad apples and careless workers notions of risk in corruption reform, in Proceedings 9th International Conference on Sustainable Development in the Minerals Industry, pp 145146 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).