0 an example of dishonest and illegal behaviour, especially by a person in authority:
Several cases of malpractice and malfeasance in the financial world are currently being investigated.
1 the fact of someone in a position of authority intentionally doing something dishonest or illegal:
Against a background of corporate greed and malfeasance, a renewed focus on transparency and accountability is or seems to be permeating the business world.
Donors have often stressed the lack of 'political will ', to account for limited action against high-level state malfeasance.
In addition, voters must be able to assess whether the politicians actually are engaging in malfeasance.
In neither case, however, were personal relations alone seen as an effective guarantee against malfeasance.
Voters' ability to monitor the relevant actors depends on the voters' ability, first, to observe malfeasance if it occurs and, secondly, to organize for oversight.
Yet because of their dependence on brokers for facilitating procurement and other essential services government officials rarely took decisive action to curb malfeasance.
In other words, elections provide both incentives for politicians to enact certain kinds of policies and constraints on politicians' malfeasance.
In the absence of rival entities there may be no effective way to counter official malfeasance.
