Fraud in Municipalities. Research Project

If one assumes that each municipality has a relative autonomy regarding the geographical and social spaces one can create fraud and corruption estimation models - in an ample sociological sense - by municipality. Fraud and corruption are the result of the social environment impact, the functioning of institutions and the individual practices, as well as the interactions between them. From this framework, vicious and virtuous cycles occur, with local specificities. The municipalities are frequently the focus of public attention and criminal investigation, but the quantified information is scarce and partial. Besides that, attention is more about the frequency of fraud rather than to its value. This can create a serious gap between the reality of fraud and corruption and its perception. Only the use of different methodologies for quantifying the facts and networking between institutions can give an insight of the fraud and corruption within a municipality. At this moment we consider the integration of three vectors in the model. However, the possibility of expansion is also considered. First of all, it is recognized that the social influence and institutional interaction about the existence of an environment more or less favorable to fraud and corruption. It is possible to estimate fraud probability assuming a set of hypotheses, and combining the information available by municipality, the knowledge of the Fraud Management, Sociology and Criminology, statistical spatial studies to other places and the detection of some indicia. Secondly, the thinly veiled nature of the fraud, its time of gestation and the great diversity of its forms, requires any quantification to use perception quantification and the results of victimization surveys. These must be applied to different targets, to compare results and to get a glimpse on the heterogeneity of analyzed frauds. Thirdly, it is recognized that local power structures in their political and administrative functions have a decisive influence on fraud. We must find ways to analyze and quantify the functioning of municipalities in relation to occupational and organizational fraud. That can be achieved, for example, by analyzing their plans for preventing corruption, their administrative practices, their political-institutional attitudes or their local social networks. The articulation between these three vectors highlights a greater possibility to quantify the fraud by municipalities. This geography allows the operationalization of fraud prevention that considers the diversity of agents, layers and times. All methods to quantify the Non-Registered Economy face difficulties, perhaps impossibility, in spatial segmentation if the unit of reference - in this case the municipality - is completely open to the outside. The model shown here allows intercepting their results with the national Non-Registered Economy, allowing an approach to spatial segmentation.