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Baccalaureate Oral Exam 2009: Series A4-A5 
 
Why Is it that Anti-corruption Laws Are Not Always Enforced?

The main reason why anti-corruption laws are not enforced is because there is no political will to enforce them.
The anti-corruption laws may have been inherited, imposed or accepted as a condition of receiving development assistance. They may not reflect the views of the government or politicians but be judged necessary in order to gain international respectability and to prevent donors from reducing, suspending or withdrawing their support.
There may be domestic political reasons for having anti-corruption laws. They can be passed in order to appease or divert criticism from political opponents and the media without any commitment from the political leadership to enforce them.
Anti-corruption laws may, in some cases, be difficult to enforce. They may be poorly drafted or imported whole from very different jurisdictions. Anti-corruption laws may be unenforceable in that they depend on the availability of information and resources, which simply do not exist in the country.
Enforcement requires effective auditing and monitoring institutions, a non-corrupt police force with specialist training and an efficient and non-corrupt judicial system. In the absence of any of these elements, the prospects for detecting corruption, accumulating evidence against individuals and securing convictions are poor.
Political will is a necessary condition for rigorous enforcement but it is not a sufficient one. Political will alone will not be enough if corruption is pervasive and deep-rooted, and political will cannot compensate for a lack of funding, personnel and technical skills.
It is sometimes the case that when anti-corruption laws are not enforced, other laws are also not enforced. It is a symptom of a wider breakdown in the rule of law and effective government.
But every government has to make choices about the allocation of resources and when there are multiple pressing needs, as there are in developing countries, anti-corruption enforcement may become one of the less pressing priorities.

From FAQS: Causes and Consequences of Corruption, p. 22.

To enforce: mettre en vigueur
Pervasive: existing everywhere.