In Holmes’ definition, we should note the focus on
public corruption, personal interest and deviation of
norms (‘‘illegal or improper’’. See above). Morris
also defined corruption as a behavior by a public
official which deviates from public interest (1991). This definition is quite similar to that of World Bank, a leading international body researching this matter, which defines corruption as ‘‘the abuse of public office for private gain’’ (World Bank, 1997: 8). In thisarticle, we will define corruption as: ‘‘a manipulation of powers of government or sale of
government property, or both by government officials for personal use’’ (Jain, 1998; Shleifer and Vishny, 1993).