Technological intervention for curbing corruption in developing countries

Dr Mukul Chandra Bora

(The writer is State Project Administrator, State Project Implementation unit - North East, a unit of Ministry of Education, Government of India)

Corruption is one of the biggest issues in developing and poor countries throughout the world, and it is just like a virus that is primarily responsible for its day-to-day increase in poverty and unemployment. It came to light many times in the report of international agencies like UNDP, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank etc., and after rigorous discussions and debate on the issue of corruption, those agencies have concluded that only Technological Interventions can reduce substantially this issue and reduce the issue of poverty and unemployment. As human beings are becoming unreliable and prone to emotions and hence the use and application of technology is the only solution left to the poor and developing countries to get rid of the perennial problems related to the quality of life and livelihood.

Fig 1.0: Anti-corruption protests around the world

In recent years, technology has become one of the most powerful tools for preventing and tracking corruption in different countries and digitalization have transformed the public sector tremendously and with the enormous potential and wide-ranging benefits of improving the efficiency and effectiveness in public administration and service delivery which in turn is enhancing transparency, accountability, accessibility and citizen participation. The technology and anti-corruption measures have a strong relationship which has been further consolidated by COVID-19 and with effective digital governance, technology has not only been instrumental for rapid response to the COVID-19 crisis but also enabled transparency and accountability of government institutions.

A country like Singapore has leveraged its digital approach and Smart Nation initiative in responding effectively to different areas of the pandemic; surveillance, prevention and containment, diagnosis, and treatment. Rapid innovations done by the Republic of Korea in response to COVID-19 have not only helped to test, trace and treat cases but also ensured accountability and openness in its response through measures such as real-time public information disclosure.

Digital initiatives in COVID-19 responses have also included open-contracting policies in Paraguay and Ukraine, open data portals used to monitor COVID-19 information in Serbia, and digital payment platforms to reduce the risk of fraud and corruption and authenticate COVID-19 cash transfers in Malawi. COVID-19 has taught us that technology can play an important role during a global health crisis. Yet these responses have not been without concerns over privacy and personal data protection.

Now the question is, how can we harness the benefits of technology while minimizing the risks of misuse or abuse for private gain? The starting point is to ensure that technology providers and governments are more accountable in the use of data and regulation of technologies. Without integrating transparency, accountability and integrity in digital transformations and development interventions, there are always risks of misuse of technology for private gain. The societal impacts will include the erosion of rights, civil liberties, trust and social cohesion, besides issues related to personal data privacy, security and protection.

In particular, the principles of transparency, accountability and integrity must be considered in the context of emerging technology developments – such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and distributed ledger technology, and big data to help build trust, enhance digital governance and regulatory mechanisms, and ensure the responsible use of data and technology. The following are the brief details of the measures that should be taken by the Indian Government to mitigate the perennial social virus called Corruption in terms of money, wealth and human resources.

Automate tax collection: Automation is playing an important role in reducing discretionary practices in tax collection and the taxpayers hoping to pay less and tax administrators hoping to earn more can easily lead to bribery and corruption in the tax office. In Afghanistan alone when this was implemented leads to an increase in revenue collection from $250 Million to almost $2Billion since 2004.

Sharing of information across borders: The issue of corruption doesn't stop at national borders and it spreads throughout and sharing of information internationally on aid, public contracts, or company ownership can be really powerful to compare, identify and prosecute. The Implementation of this technology in Ukraine leads to 14% in savings.

Digitalization of public services: The best way to prevent corrupt practices by public servants is to put the entire public service process online including recruitment. This was observed in Kosovo that was the country with 40% unemployment. The recruitment is very often prone to bribes.

Preventing corruption in social security through data: One of the major issues of corruption lies in the leakages in entitlements of old-age pension, unemployment doles, and benefits like food coupons, healthcare, and more happen because of the lack or inaccessibility of social sector data and the corruption takes place in two ways – when public sector officials keep a cut for giving what is rightfully due, and where citizens bribe officials or work around the system to avail more than what is due. (The Uttar Pradesh, the Janani Suraksha Yojna scam unravelled when bank officials reported that a woman had collected the State government's pregnancy dole five times in ten months!). The Indian Government's Unique Identification Number (AADHAR) initiative of gathering biometric and demographic data of all Indian residents and linking it with social benefits like public distribution system entitlements is a good example to plug such leakages.

Beating corruption by going human-free: Human-to-human contact is the major cause of corruption in the Government and public administration system and reducing human contact, especially discretionary power, can drastically bring down petty corruption. The activities like renewals of licenses (for shops, establishments and vehicles) are a major source of bribery, with public officials pocketing money every time a license is up for renewal. Similarly, civic enforcement activities like challenging traffic offenders can be successfully dealt with by camera-aided traffic signals and computerized checkpoints. E-challans can be generated for offences along with proof (i.e. a picture) of the offending vehicle or other data (such as weight details of an overloaded vehicle). Human interference in public service payments like invoicing for electricity and water usage are another source of day-to-day corruption, where middlemen often tamper with readings and pocket a charge to revise bills. Computer-aided meter reading devices, attached to tamper-free meters, can be used to transmit readings electronically to the billing system in the company's headquarters, thus cutting out the human element and opportunity for corruption.

Currency-free banking and cashless transactions: While effective e-governance can beat retail corruption, large-scale corruption such as black money and laundering across entities and nations can be checked through premise-less, currency-less, futuristic banking systems. Corrupt transactions are typically done through cash to make them untraceable and capping large cash transactions in banking (such as deposits, withdrawals, and transfers) and encouraging digital money transactions will make monitoring easier and evasion more difficult.

The success story of M-Pesa/M-Paisa in African countries and Afghanistan is widely known, and this system not only made money transfers easier and more economical but also fought corruption.

Similarly, E–auctions and e-procurement platforms can help in moving towards cleaner procurement systems by controlling kickbacks for government departments. With their fair bidding systems and transparent structures, these systems do away with the collusion and graft that are characteristic of public procurement.

The internet and data-aided applications can provide much-needed transparency in the ever-growing recruitment scams. Indian states like Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka have shown the lead in curbing corruption in teacher recruitments and transfers in government schools by publishing teacher data online. Surplus teachers, posts, vacancies, and shortages are published for everyone to see, and the tool automatically makes matches according to set criteria (besides making applicant credentials available for scrutiny).

Although the application of technology is good for curbing corruption in developing countries still challenges remain. However, constraints include costs, security and sustainability of records, and intra-agency collaboration across different technical platforms. In considering whether technology is good or bad in the fight against corruption, the experts have got different opinions and ultimately, it seems best to think of technology as a tool that can produce good or bad outcomes. Like any other tools, it needs to be used properly or it can cause harm, and proper use requires awareness of the risks, good standards of practice and training. However, if used with skill, technology can be a powerful tool in the fight to end impunity.