ICT & Corruption

Corruption impacts people’s lives by impairing their access to public services and information. Corruption hampers both individuals and businesses investing their resources in productive ways.

Information and communication technologies (ICT) can through e-governance systems support the fight against corruption by raising acoountability through digital footprints, raise transparency by publicizing regulations and fees, and reduce face-to face interaction where most requests for bribes takes place. ICT - such as mobile phones - effectively empower citizens by allowing people to collaboratively gather and share evidence of corrupt practices. In short, ICT can assist citizens willing to challenge the systems that condone corruption.

Corruption affects development

Corruption is often identified as the misuse of publicly entrusted resources for personal gain. It ranges from facilitation payments, where a bribe is paid to receive preferential treatment for something that the bribe receiver is required to do by law; to a bribe paid to obtain services the bribe receiver is prohibited from providing. Corruption can and does exist in all sectors of society and is therefore not only a concern for the public sector.  According to Transparency International’s 2009 report corruption is a growing challenge for the business sector both in the developing and industrialized countries. At the level of the individual firm, it raises transaction costs and introduces reputational risks, as well as open up for extortion. Regardless of sector and level of transactions, corruption hampers development. It damages a country’s development by undermining faith in public institutions, increasing costs for firms and can potentially scare away both foreign and inward investments.

Corruption is often translated and rationalized by a means to “circumventing bureaucratic red tape”, which sometimes results in circumventing environmental protection laws and public health regulations. It is thus contributing to the depletion of natural resources and rapid destruction of human habitat. In the area of health, corruption can have a deadly outcome when bribes facilitate counterfeit drugs being administered.

ICT – part of the solution

While complete eradication of corruption is difficult to achieve, much can be done in decreasing its prevalence. Putting in place systemic hurdles may prevent people from abusing their power for private gain. In tandem with limiting opportunity, the perceived risks of detection may futher reduce prelavence. The provision of information and public services by electronic means through integrated systems has proven to be valuable in putting in place systemic hurdles, and increase the risk of detection.

World Bank research from India, on the implementation of e-governance systems in a range of services from issuance of land records for farmers to payment for public utility services, show that the computerization of service delivery made the entire process more predictable for service users and that citizens’ cost of accessing services decreased significantly.

The study also showed that under the e-government projects, significantly fewer citizens needed to pay bribes than under manual systems. Public officials stated that the discretionary powers had narrowed with e-governance systems, resulting in less opportunity to deny services to citizens. Yet, another important potential with e-governance is an increased quality of record keeping; electronic systems allow for the creation of a complete audit trail where any changes made to the databases can be traced and linked to an individual.

An empowered citizenry the best way to fight corruption

Corruption falls disproportionately on the poorer members of society and hinders them from accessing scarce and inadequately funded services. The poor are frequently portrayed as helpless in the face of corruption, but civil society organizations in developing countries are gearing up to demand greater transparency as a key component in fighting corruption and empowering poor people. While, increased transparency is often dependent on political will, civil society can and is successfully challenging the political will of their governments around the world.  ICT can facilitate their work by dissemination of information on funding flows such as public expenditures and development assistance funding to the public; on what corruption is and where to report it; and support digital platforms where citizens can report incidents anonymously.  

ICT is in some places already being used by civil society organization to obstruct corruption and increase the risks of being detected. By using a mix of methods of campaigning on transparency and educating citizens about corruption and their civil rights, citizens become empowered and less likely to fall prey to public officials’ illegal financial demands.

Naturally, ICT is not a magic bullet when it comes to ensuring greater transparency and less corruption. The introduction of ICT needs to be accompanied with changes in the administrative processes and training of more client-oriented public services to be effective.

There are still significant challenges in realizing the potential of new technologies in a variety of circumstances and find ways of inserting them effectively into corrupt and often indifferent public service environments. ICT can support actors wishing to improve governance capacity and fight corruption, but the surrounding political, social and infrastructural environment will decide if the technology is to be used to its fullest potential.

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