The de­cline of good gov­er­nance and the rise of in­sti­tu­tion­al cor­rup­tion in the sport and Olympic move­ment should be a cause for con­cern sim­ply be­cause it’s so per­va­sive.

A Google search of the mean­ing of in­sti­tu­tion­al cor­rup­tion de­fines it as the sys­tem­at­ic and strate­gic un­der­min­ing of an in­sti­tu­tion’s ef­fec­tive­ness, pur­pose, or abil­i­ty to achieve its goals, of­ten through ac­tions that are le­gal or even eth­i­cal.

A more de­tailed ex­pla­na­tion as­serts the fol­low­ing:

Sys­temic and strate­gic: In­sti­tu­tion­al cor­rup­tion isn’t just iso­lat­ed in­stances of wrong­do­ing, but rather a pat­tern of be­hav­iour that is deeply in­grained with­in an or­gan­i­sa­tion.

Un­der­min­ing ef­fec­tive­ness: It in­volves ac­tions that di­vert an in­sti­tu­tion from its in­tend­ed pur­pose or weak­en its abil­i­ty to ful­fil its re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.

Le­gal or eth­i­cal but harm­ful: The be­hav­iours may be le­gal or even con­sid­ered eth­i­cal with­in the or­gan­i­sa­tion, but they still cause harm to the in­sti­tu­tion and those it serves.

Ex­am­ples:

De­vi­a­tion from pur­pose: An in­sti­tu­tion’s ac­tions stray from its orig­i­nal goals.

Rep­u­ta­tion­al dam­age: Plac­ing the pro­tec­tion of rep­u­ta­tion above truth, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing in­quiries.

Con­ceal­ing fail­ings: Fail­ing to be can­did about short­com­ings for the sake of main­tain­ing a pos­i­tive pub­lic im­age.

Abuse of pow­er: Us­ing pow­er or in­flu­ence for per­son­al or col­lec­tive gain, even if it is not il­le­gal.

Bribery and in­flu­ence ped­dling: Of­fer­ing or ac­cept­ing bribes or us­ing in­flu­ence for per­son­al gain.

Em­bez­zle­ment: Mis­ap­pro­pri­a­tion of funds or as­sets.

In­sti­tu­tion­al cor­rup­tion un­der­mines and makes a mock­ery of good gov­er­nance. Good gov­er­nance is now no more than a con­ve­nient check list and a pub­lic re­la­tions (PR) gim­mick.

Good in­ten­tions and good ideas are hi­jacked.

Gen­der equal­i­ty, di­ver­si­ty and in­clu­sion, safe­guard­ing, and be­ing ath­lete-cen­tred are now di­min­ished to noth­ing more than po­lit­i­cal machi­na­tions.

Non-trans­par­ent de­ci­sion-mak­ing is the norm at the ex­pense of gen­uine and sin­cere trans­paren­cy. Ac­count­abil­i­ty is mere spin and strate­gic dis­trac­tion.

How do we get back on track and on a path­way to bet­ter gov­er­nance?

Bet­ter gov­er­nance mat­ters. Mean­ing­ful change does not re­quire rad­i­cal change. All it takes is small im­prove­ments. Progress re­quires un­learn­ing.

Our be­hav­iours are a re­flec­tion of the type of per­son, you be­lieve you are. Or­gan­i­sa­tions are no dif­fer­ent. There are a set of be­liefs and as­sump­tions that shape the sys­tem, an iden­ti­ty and a cul­ture be­hind the ac­tions or habits. What are the be­liefs that dri­ve ac­tions?

What makes the dif­fer­ence is the sys­tems that cause the re­sults. Goals set the di­rec­tion. Sys­tems are the process­es that lead to the re­sults.

Sport or­gan­i­sa­tions, sport fed­er­a­tions, gov­ern­ing bod­ies and Olympic com­mit­tees must choose to be or­gan­i­sa­tions for whom bet­ter gov­er­nance and trans­par­ent de­ci­sion-mak­ing mat­ter.

Box-tick­ing good gov­er­nance is not in the best in­ter­est of sport. Look around and pay close at­ten­tion. Ask your­self if the ac­tions of sport or­gan­i­sa­tions and sport lead­ers re­flect bet­ter gov­er­nance. Even when they tick ten out of ten on the good gov­er­nance check list.

It’s sad but don’t be bit­ter or frus­trat­ed. Stay com­mit­ted to bet­ter gov­er­nance. Fo­cus not on the goal of bet­ter gov­er­nance but on the changes that need to be made to the sys­tem that will cre­ate bet­ter gov­er­nance.

The goal of good gov­er­nance is no longer mak­ing sense. It’s not a mat­ter of se­man­tics. The re­sult of decades of fo­cus on good gov­er­nance has not de­liv­ered the ex­pect­ed out­come.

There is no fin­ish line. There is no per­ma­nent so­lu­tion. The key to suc­cess is to nev­er stop mak­ing im­prove­ments. The things you do dai­ly - good or bad don’t add up they com­pound.

For a long time, good gov­er­nance was a pri­or­i­ty but time has shown bet­ter gov­er­nance mat­ters more than good gov­er­nance.

Ed­i­tor’s note

The vei­ws ex­pressed in the pre­ced­ing ar­ti­cle are sole­ly those of the au­thor and do not re­flect the views of any or­gan­i­sa­tion in which he is a stake­hold­er.