KENNETH GONDWE

STUDENT NO :R1703D2463846

CORRUPTION AND THE ECONOMY

This essay has been written down to explain in details how
to write a research using real life corruption issues, on how
corruption affects the economy of Malawi using research
methods.
Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................1
WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN.....................................................................................................................1
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH.......................................................................................................................2
DATA COLLECTION PLAN.....................................................................................................................2
ADVANTAGES OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH.......................................................................................2
DISADVANTAGES OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH.................................................................................2
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH.................................................................................................................3
ADVANTAGES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH.........................................................................................3
DISADVANTAGES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH.....................................................................3
PROBLEM STATEMENT............................................................................................................................3
HYPOTHESIS.............................................................................................................................................4
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY..................................................................................................................4
SCHEDULE................................................................................................................................................4
BUDGET...................................................................................................................................................5
DATA COLLECTION METHODS USED IN THE RESEARCH...........................................................................5
PRIMARY DATA....................................................................................................................................5
SECONDARY DATA...............................................................................................................................5
SAMPLING...............................................................................................................................................5
SAMPLING TECHNIQUES......................................................................................................................5
TARGET POPULATION..........................................................................................................................6
COLLECTING PRIMARY DATA...................................................................................................................6
COLLECTING SECONMDARY DATA...........................................................................................................6
RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS USED..............................................................................................................6
INSTRUMENT DESIGN..........................................................................................................................6
MESUAREMENT QUESTIONS...............................................................................................................7
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER BEFORE ASKING THE QUESTIONS..............................................................7
DATA PROCESSING..................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................9
INTRODUCTION
Malawi is a poor land rocked country located in the sub-Sahara region in southern Africa. Forbes ranks
Malawi as the seventh poorest country in the world. It is difficult to understand why Malawi is still poor
even after 57 years of independence. But one of the main reasons behind its poverty is corruption.
Corruption can be defined as a deviant behavior associated with a particular motivation namely that of
private gain at public expense (freidrich,1972, in anders & Nuijten,2007:7). corruption practices range
from simple transactions to complex transactions taking different forms.

However, most studies investigating the issue of corruption only focus on corruption causes and effects
of corruption and neglect other prominent issues namely; how deep does corruption affect the economy
of Malawi Hence forth, the research problem will come from this area with a lot of backing from
previous research, the internet and different research approaches used by the researcher.

WHAT IS ALREADY KNOWN

Since this is a serious problem and acts as a threat to the development of Malawi research has already
been conducted on the matter. Some sources claim that corruption in Malawi is on the decline but all
sources have agreed that corruption is still a serious issue in the country.

Previous research done by the world bank in 2010 shows that Malawi scores 42.1 percentile on the
control of corruption indicators. (worldwide governance indicators the world bank,2010). The same
world bank in 2012 conducted another survey on the issue. The findings were that 9 out of10 citizens in
the country believe that corruption is a serious problem in the country and that 70% of the population
believe that corruption has gotten worse over the past 15 years

The Ibrahim index of Africa Governance (2011) found out that Malawi ranked 17 th out of 53 sub-Saharan
countries. Malawi scored 57 out of 100 which at least is above the continents average 50. However, the
countries score line is below the southern African countries which is 58.

The transparency international daily lives and corruption, public opinion in southern Africa. survey in
2014 survey found out that 57% of Malawians surveyed believe that corruption in public service delivery
has increased in the past 3 years.58 % of respondents reported having once paid a bribe to access public
services in the past 12 months.

The Ti Daily lives and corruption survey in 2011 found out that there are three main corrupt sectors in
the country namely; The police (it scored 4.6 on a 7.0 scale) customs (41% of citizens report to pay a
bribe to custom authorities) and lastly the judiciary (39% of the citizens pay a bribe to judicial
authorities).

Even after these already done research surveys on the same topic I still fill there is need to continue
researching on the topic especially on how corruption affects the economy of Malawi, that is why we are
conducting this research at a custom department called Malawi revenue of Authorities.

But for us top be able to conduct a research at the Malawi revenue of authorities we have to know what
type of research approaches we are going to use, the advantages and why should we use them hence
the below paragraphs.
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Quantitative research is a systematic investigation of gathering data and performing statistical
mathematical, or computational techniques (Rahman,2017). Quantitative research collects information
from existing and potential customers using sampling methods. The results are always depicted in
numerical figure. Techniques used include survey research, correlational research (Rahman,2017).

DATA COLLECTION PLAN

There are two main ways of collecting data in a quantitative research method and these include
probability and nonprobability sampling. In probability sampling a theory is used to filter individuals
from a population and create samples where by participants of the population are chosen randomly. In
non-probability sampling the researcher mainly uses experience and knowledge therefore there is an
equal probability of being selected (Rahman,2017).

ADVANTAGES OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

1. Collect reliable and accurate data
 Collection and analysis of data in numbers makes the results data reliable since numbers
do not lie. Numbers offer an honest picture of the conducted research and help when a
researcher is experiencing conflict.
2. Quick Data collection
 Using surveys or any other quantitative method when collecting data can be
straightforward and fast as the process of statistics and analysis is easy.
3. Wider Scope of data analysis
 With the presence of statistics, the quantitative research method provides a wide
variety of data collection.
4. Elimination of bias
 The given results are numerical therefore considered for reducing the scale of favoritism
or bias.

DISADVANTAGES OF QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH

1. False focus on numbers
 By only focusing and concentrating on numbers there are chances that you can miss out
on important information that can benefit your business.
2. Can be misleading
 Even though numbers do not lie it is the researcher who collect those numbers. Bias and
errors made by the researcher when collecting numbers can give wrong outcomes
therefore misleading the whole process.
3. Difficult setting up of research model
 During a quantitative research there is a process that you have to follow such as data
collection, hypothesis, and data analysis. Any errors occurred in the process will
sophisticate the whole procedure and can invalidate results.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Qualitative research involves collecting and analyzing non-numerical data such as words, video or audio.
Some of the main methods of collecting data using the qualitative approach includes observation,
interviews, focus groups (Zikmund, 2003).
ADVANTAGES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
1. Flexibility
 The data collection and analysis are flexible and can easily be adapted as new ideas
emerge
2. Natural setting
 It is realistic since dt collection occurs in the real world.
3. Comprises of Meaningful insights
 Descriptions of people’s experiences, feelings and perceptions can either be used in
designing, testing or improving products.
4. Generation of new ideas
 Open ended questions help researchers to uncover problems they would never thought
of.
DISADVANTAGES OF QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
Researchers have to see the practical and theoretical limitations of qualitative research and
unfortunately these are its drawbacks.

1. Unreliability
 The real-world setting makes qualitative research unreliable it contains uncontrolled
factors of data

2. Subjectivity
 Qualitative research cannot be replicated this is due to the primary role in analyzing and
interpreting of data by the researcher
3. Limited generalizability
 A small sample can be used to gather detailed data about the whole population. This is
difficult to draw generalizable conclusions as the data collected may be biased.
4. Labor intensive
 Even through with the advancement of computer technology where by software can be
used to manage and record data, analysis of the data on the other hand has to be
checked manually.

PROBLEM STATEMENT
Looking at the discussed topic above we can conclude that corruption is really an issue in the country
therefore a topic that needs to be paid attention to and study. Corruption is a threat to economic
freedom and therefore has become an important research field over the years (Amundsen, 1999).
Therefore, this thesis is going to take a broad approach that will allow us to consider the whole process
of corruption. We have also seen that research has been done before on the same topic but the issue
still has gaps to fill.
This leads to the following problem statement:

How does public office corruption in the country affect the economy of the country?

In order for us to be able to answer this research question the following sub questions will be addressed:

1. Does corruption exist in the country?

2. If corruption exists to what extent has it reached?
3. What effect has corruption had to the local economy of the country and how?

The contribution of the research is therefore as follows.

1. This research is meant to define the concept of corruption. The research at hand aims to provide
further insights in corruptions causes and effects.
2. Developing a better understanding of corruption and the economy
3. Since the research approach is both quantitative and qualitative, it will be possible to draw
inferences about what employees perceive as corrupt and which factors are most likely to
induce corruption.

HYPOTHESIS
Hypothesis 1
H0: There is a direct relationship between public office corruption and the economy of Malawi.
H1: There is no relationship between public office corruption and the economy of Malawi.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

In this research, how corruption affects the economy of Malawi forms the core of the study. For me to
capture different contexts, I want to study employees from different companies (Working
environments). But, I would like to focus on working environments that previous research has evidenced
as the most corrupt organizations such as the Malawi Revenue of Authorities (MRA) which falls in the
customs department.

To gather information from the employees at MRA, I will conduct a face to face interview with a few
employees of the governments department. I suggest to use a couple of different questions some asking
if employees of the company have been caught with corrupt practice before and others will ask them if
they are any measures that help to prevent corruption in the company and how they can react in a
hypothetical situation.

SCHEDULE
January 2021 Fine tuning of research problem and draft of theory chapters.

February 2021 Primary and secondary data analysis of the chapter “corruption practices in
governmental public offices”.

March 2021 Field work out “includes interviews with employees at Malawi Revenue of authorities.

April 2021 Analysis of quantitative and qualitative data.

May 2021 Writing it up and paper finishing by the end of May.

BUDGET
For us to be able to conduct a research on corruption at the Malawi Revenue of Authorities. We might
need a budget of not less than Mk 100,000. This amount will be used for; booking meetings with
officers, fuel costs and payment of resources used.

DATA COLLECTION METHODS USED IN THE RESEARCH

When collecting data, a researcher has two approaches either to use the primary data collection method
or the secondary data collection method. The difference between the two is that in primary data
collection the researcher collects data using the current study while in secondary collection of data the
researcher uses existing data. In this research, we are going to use both ways of collecting data as they
will both help us to gather the information needed to understand the topic. They will also help us to
understand the significant relationship between corruption and the economy.

PRIMARY DATA
As earlier said primary data is the data that is collected directly by the researcher without referring to an
external source which was already collected. There are two approaches on how data is collected
primarily namely; communication approach and the observation approach. Examples of the
communication approach include face to face interviews, phone surveys, web surveys and self -
administered surveys. In the observation approach it actually depends with the type of research method
the researcher has chosen to use. In qualitative studies the frequently used style is the participation
observation while in quantitative studies we use the structured observation (Williams, 2007).

SECONDARY DATA
Secondary data is information that has already been collected, gathered or recorded by someone else
usually for other purposes (Williams, 2007). In general, we can say that secondary data is data which is
historical that can be retrieved from, books, journals, newspapers etc. The advantage of using secondary
data is that it saves time and money therefore regarded cheap than compared to primary date. The
main disadvantage of using secondary data is that the research was not done specific to your topic of a
study therefore there is always need of adding and subtracting from the source (Williams, 2007).

SAMPLING
A lot of people know the idea of sampling as a taste a drink can give you as a buyer the impression
whether the drink is sweet or sour. If we can select a few employment records out of the whole set we
can know the characteristics of the full set. But why should we sample? Sampling is, less expensive than
conducting a census, greater accuracy of results, greater speed of data and lastly availability of
population elements (Chibwe,2011).

SAMPLING TECHNIQUES
There are two types of sampling method the probability and the non-probability sampling method. In
this research we are going to use the probability sampling approach. In probability sampling, researchers
use a random selection of elements so that they can reduce or eliminate bias. There are five probability
sampling techniques namely; simple random, systematic, cluster and lastly double probability sampling.
This research will use the systematic sample approach. We prefer to use the systematic probability
testing method as it is simple, flexible and easy to determine sampling distribution of mean but also less
expensive regarding the size of MRA in Lilongwe. During the sample we focused on identifying the total
number of elements in the sample (elements being employees), identifying the sampling ratio,
identifying the random start and lastly choosing every kth entry.

TARGET POPULATION
On 3rd January, I and my team conducted a probability sample at the Malawi Revenue of Authorities
(MRA) headquarters in Lilongwe on corruption cases in the governmental department. We choose the
Malawi revenue of authorities because it is a big governmental department where public officers
directly work with the people hence increased chances of corruption. The research will include
interviewing top officers including the chairman, directors, managers and a few other employees. There
are a lot of employees at MRA but we only targeted those offices we know are more vulnerable to
corrupt practices so that we can keep our sample size desirable and moderate and accurate enough to
represent the whole population.

COLLECTING PRIMARY DATA

I and my team, are going to collect primary data at MRA by asking them the possibility of interviews with
a few employees of the company on corruption issues in governmental offices. The type of interviews
we have chosen as a way of collecting primary data is face to face interviews. We know in advance that
their office is a busy working environment therefore we have decided to also include web surveys as it
would be easier and can be done during free time.

COLLECTING SECONMDARY DATA

After collecting primary data at the Malawi Revenue of Authorities we plan to go on researching about
how corruption affects the economy of Malawi as a whole by collecting secondary data. We will use the
internet (journals and articles). We have already gone on further researching by reading corruption
charges of members of MRA in newspapers to fully understand the extent of corruption in the company.

RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS USED

In this research the instrument we are going to use is a face to face interview questionnaire and web
seminar questionnaire. We chose these two as they are easy to conduct, give accurate responses and
are quite cheaper than the others. The advantage of using questionnaires is that they contain first hand
data whilst at the same time being able to attract a large group of respondents. The questions to ask the
respondents will be in a fixed re ability format for easy comparability of responses.

INSTRUMENT DESIGN
When questioning the employees there has to be a sequence from general management questions to
more specific questions. The questions to be asked follow the following sequence;

1. Dilemma questions
 These are questions which I as a researcher is going to ask based on what I want to solve

2. Research questions
 This is a fact-based question to support the management question
3. Investigation questions
 
These are specific questions which I as a researcher must answer to provide sufficient
detail and coverage of the research question.
4. Measurement questions
 These are the questions the participants have to answer for us to complete the survey

MESUAREMENT QUESTIONS
The whole idea is to talk to the participants. Therefore, this is the most important part for us to know
how corruption affects the economy of the country. The following below are the questions categories to
ask our respondents.

1. Administrative questions
 These are identity questions. We are going to ask the respondents to produce their
participants Id, interview id, and ask about the interview location etc. They will help us
as the researcher to study patterns within the data and to check the possibility of errors.
2. Target questions
 We will therefore go on to ask investigative questions as they are specific and therefore
important to the study. Examples include;
 has any customer approached you with a bribe before?
 If yes did you accept the bribe or not?
3. Classification questions
 These are demographic questions that allows us to group participants answers so that
they can easily be studied. An Example can be;
 Do you think our economy is in struggling because of corruption?

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER BEFORE ASKING THE QUESTIONS

For us to conduct a wonderful research the following have to be put into consideration before the
research begins;

1. Should we ask this question?

2. Is the question being asked at a proper scope and coverage?
3. Will all the participants be willing to answer the question?
4. Can the participant answer adequately?

DATA PROCESSING
After collecting the unprocessed data at Malawi revenue of authorities the remaining thing we need to
do is to process the data. When we talk about data we are talking about a meaningless collection of
words, numbers or any other information that is unprocessed. Therefore, the unprocessed data has to
be converted into something meaningful otherwise the research was just a waste of resources.
(Madey,1982). Therefore, in order for us to be able to process the data we will need to check, edit, code
and lastly process.

Firstly, we need to count and number all the questionnaires. This will help us know if all the planned
questionnaires have been collected. After that we will need to check and edit all the questionnaires that
have been collect at the survey field. The reason behind is to make sure respondents have fully
answered all the questions. For us to be perfect we will delete all the incomplete, illogical, double ticking
or errors found in the questionnaires. We are going to get lead of missing responses by excluding them
while running the analysis.

Secondly, we will need to code the data. We are going to use an easy operating software system called
SAS.It will help us to find errors throughout the whole process. With this software all the questions will
have their codes (Madey,1982).

The next step to be done is data editing. This is a process of detecting and correcting all the illogical and
omitted responses by the respondents. When results of one question is not responding to the plan we
will edit the response to suit the required style.

Lastly, we will finalize the process through data transformation. This is a process of changing the original
format of data into a new format of data. For example, we might have a question which has answered to
A 1 (Strongly disagree) A 2 (Disagree). These types of questions are negative and leaves respondents to
have negative answers to the research. Therefore, we are going to change to another scale type. An
example would be A 1 for (Strongly disagree) can become A 7(Strongly agree) A 2 can change to A 8
and the list can go on until we reach the last question. This will give respondents a variety of responses
both negative and positive.

CONCLUSION
Research methodologies are important aspects when we would like to collect, analyze and interpret
data. In our writing we used these research methodologies to collect information at the Malawi Revenue
of Authorities by using research properties such as, research design, data collection methods, sampling
research instruments, and data processing. With the help of these techniques we now know how
corruption affects the economy of Malawi. To add on this research can also be of use to people who are
also researching on the same topic or are just interested.

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