Measuring Corruption in Public Construction Projects in China
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 141, Issue 4
Abstract
Corruption has been identified as the greatest obstacle to economic and social development. Public construction projects, in particular, face high corruption risk as public construction sector has been consecutively deemed as the most corrupt one. Despite considerable efforts have been undertaken to measure corruption at a nation level, few researchers focus on the measurement of corruption in construction projects. This paper develops a fuzzy measurement model for the potential corruption in public construction projects in China. Through semistructured interviews with 14 experts, and then a questionnaire survey with 188 respondents, 24 measurement items of corruption were identified and further categorized into five constructs. The fuzzy set theory was then adopted to quantify each measurement item, construct, and the overall corruption level. This model can facilitate in evaluating, revealing, and monitoring corruption in public construction projects. Although this paper focuses on measuring corruption in public construction projects in China, similar research methods can be applied in other countries around the world and thus contribute to the global body of knowledge of corruption.
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Acknowledgments
The research reported in this paper was funded by the Joint Ph.D. program between Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Tongji University, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 71172107 and 71390523). Dr. K. N. Jha and Dr. S. Z. S. Tabish at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, are acknowledged for permitting the use of their questionnaire instrument. All professionals involved in the survey are also acknowledged for their participation in the survey. Thanks also go to the Department of Building and Real Estate at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, as well as the Research Institute of Complex Engineering and Management at the School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, for providing support to perform the research reported in this paper.
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Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 141 • Issue 4 • October 2015
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© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Apr 16, 2014
Accepted: Jan 12, 2015
Published online: Feb 26, 2015
Discussion open until: Jul 26, 2015
Published in print: Oct 1, 2015
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