With the cost of military operations and diplomatic efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world set to top $1 trillion over the next decade, and with the International Herald Tribune reporting that contractors now play an increasingly important role in war - in Iraq, they make up the second biggest contingent of personnel after the US military - contractors are likely to get a big chunk of that money. And questions are being asked about whether this privatization will fuel corruption.

We have, for example, the report of a Kuwaiti company Green Valley Co being barred from doing business with the US government and under criminal investigation after it was found guilty of overbilling to the tune of $1.3 million.

Then there was last month's story that Associated Press called the "largest Iraq contract-rigging case yet" where an Army contracting officer, his wife and sister, a former school teacher, allegedly took millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks from contractors working in Iraq. "With cinematic elan, the trio allegedly laundered the money and deposited the proceeds in banks in the Middle East and Caribbean,'' the report said.

With reports like that, my attention was drawn to Scott Henson's Grits for Breakfast blog which recently ran a corporate bribery survey.

According to the survey, 61 per cent of respondents felt that corporations engaging in bribery should not get contracts, 60 per cent thought they should be fined, 60 per cent thought their assets should be seized and 29 per cent felt that the managers and executives needed to be prosecuted. Slightly more (17 per cent versus 14 per cent) felt companies engaged in bribery were more culpable than soldiers.

But the most interesting finding in the survey was the implication that people felt the privatization of the military was likely to produce corrupt behavior. According to the study, 51 per cent felt that corporate bribery had become more common in US military procurement, and 51 per cent felt companies were less accountable than government when it came to bribery.

Not that the US government is likely to take much notice of this survey. Also, I'm not exactly sure about its methodology. But the results suggest that the potential for corruption is now a big issue for the public.

Hat tip to the White Collar Crime Prof blog.