Can corruption be an excuse to not help people?

On April 20, 2013, a M_s 7.0 earthquake occurred in Ya'an, Sichuan, China. Hundreds of people lost their lives, in addition, over 10,000 people injured because of this terrible earthquake. While the whole country is busy raising money for disaster relief and post-disaster construction, some controversies appear in Hongkong to protest the Hongkong government donating money to the Sichuan province.

There are several reasons that Hongkong residents resist to donate. Abuse of donation is the most primary concern of Hongkong residents. In 2008, Non-government organizations in Hongkong and the Hongkong government raised a total of over 20 billion HKD donations to the Sichuan province for the Wenchuan earthquake. However, more and more scandals of donations for the Wenchuan earthquake appeared in the last few years. 

During 2010 to 2012, news media reported about many corruptions of some county governments in the disaster area. For instance, some county government built costly and luxurious office buildings instead of reconstructing schools and hospitals. Many people in Hongkong felt disappointed because they thought their hard-earned money had been wasted, so they refused to donate again for the similar tragedy happened in the 2013.

Frankly speaking, anybody who have contributed to help the people in the disaster area would be disappointed when the scandals came out. Nevertheless, corruption is a long-lasting problem that could happen in any government, any area and any country. No matter how the government regulate their officers and formulate policies to anti-corruption, potential corruption still seems to be unavoidable. 

I don't know what happened to those county officers who have embezzled the donations. I don't know if they have been punished or they are still on their position. What I know is that people who affected by the natural disaster didn't do anything wrong. They lost their homes, families, and lives because of the earthquake. They need help. If everybody afraid of their donation would be misused and resist to donate, who will help the people in the disaster area? Chinese government has limited resource to help people rebuild their homes. We shall always contribute what we can to help our people come through the disasters. Corruption is not an excuse to not help our people. Refusing to donate is punishing the victims of earthquake, not those corrupted officers.