Er Neeraj Dubey
Information and communications technology (ICTs) are increasingly seen by governments as well as activists and civil society as important tools to promote transparency and accountability as well as to identify and reduce corruption. New technologies, in the form of websites, mobile phones, applications etc., have been used to facilitate the reporting of corruption and the access to official information, to monitor the efficiency and integrity of social services and of a country’s political life, and to make financial information more transparent. ICTs can also support campaigning efforts and help mobilize people against corruption. Over the last decade, governments have launched an increasing number of e-government initiatives to enhance the efficiency and transparency of public administration and improve interaction with citizens. Despite these important developments, there is only limited research available on the impact of new technologies on corruption. There is a broad consensus that ICTs have the potential to make a significant contribution to the fight against corruption. By facilitating the flow of information between government institutions, between government and citizens, as well as among citizens, new technologies can promote transparency, accountability and civic participation. There are numerous ways in which ICTs can trigger positive change: by reducing the asymmetries of information between public officials and citizens; limiting the discretion of public officials; automatizing processes, cutting out intermediaries, and reducing red tape and bureaucracy. The Swedish Program for ICT in developing regions (Spider) developed a list of the possible areas in which ICTs can help combat corruption:- Automation, which can reduce the opportunities for corruption in repetitive operations; Transparency, which can help reduce the room for discretion; Detection in operations, to identify anomalies, outliers and underperformance; Preventive detection through monitoring of networks and individuals; o Awareness raising to empower the public and inform it about its right to resist arbitrary treatment; o Reporting, to create complaint channels that can lead to concrete action and help punish violations and close loop-holes; Deterrence, by disseminating information about reported cases of corruption; o Promoting ethical attitudes through public engagement and online discussions. Although new technologies are increasingly seen by governments and anti-corruption practitioners as a transformational tool and a game-changer, very limited research has been undertaken to measure the actual impact of ICTs on corruption at the macro-level. In spite of its potential, the use of ICTs for anti-corruption is not a magic bullet.
The realisation of its full potential depends on political, infrastructural, social and economic factors. Significant challenges in terms of Internet access, confidentiality, and costs related to the implementation of ICT solutions remain to be addressed. The pre-requisite for the success of ICT solutions is an enabling political environment that promotes and protects free speech. This conflicts with the experience of many countries, in which governments have made efforts to control the development and use of ICTs. Infrastructural environments worldwide, over a billion people have access to the internet and can use new information and communication technologies for development and good governance. However, a vast majority of the world’s population is still without internet access and thus cut off from these tools and innovations. While mobile phone penetration is progressing at rapid pace, obstacles remain to universal internet access. In particular, the lack of backbone links limits the connectivity between different regions of the world. A series of new marine and terrestrial cables is currently under construction and it is expected that it will eventually increase capacity and reduce the cost of internet access worldwide. There are multiple ways in which ICTs can contribute to identify and reduce corruption and bribery: Technology innovations can be used by governments to improve the efficiency and transparency of public administration and to better communicate with and provide information to citizens; It can also be used by citizens and civil society to raise awareness about the issue of corruption, to report abuses, to collect data and to monitor government activities: o The use of ICTs to fight corruption has increasingly served as an avenue to bring the technical community closer to activists and civil society, through the phenomenon of “hackathons”. The latest International Anti-Corruption Conference hosted a hackathon focused on finding innovative ways to fight corruption using new technologies.
Reporting can be done via websites, hotlines or phone applications that solicit and aggregate citizens experience of corruption. Reporting bribery and petty corruption perhaps the most renowned corruption reporting website is Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship’s ipaidabribe.com. Through this website, citizens can report on the nature, number, pattern, types, location, frequency and values of actual corrupt acts that they experienced. Ipaidabribe.com received almost 28,500 reports between 2010 and 2014, some of which were picked up by the media and resulted in arrests and convictions. On the same website, citizens can also report on positive experiences they had with honest officers. The initiative started in India but has now been duplicated in Greece, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Pakistan. In recent years, many social accountability projects have started using ICTs to monitor the delivery of different social services.
ICTs can also be used to promote more direct interactions between Governments and citizens and empower citizens to influence local governance in their constituency through the use of SMS and the Web. E-procurement was one of the first applications of ICTs in government activities. E-procurement is the replacement of paper-based procedures with ICTs throughout the procurement processes. E-procurement can reduce administrative costs, speed up the process, increase transparency, facilitate monitoring, encourage cross-border competition and support the development of a centralized procurement administration. Governments also use ICTs for tax collection and payment, with the objective of making the system more transparent and efficient, and to cut out potential corrupt tax collectors. In the recent past, the ministry of information technology and communication (IT & Comm.), Government of India took keen initiative in laid down emphasis on the use of latest technology in IT Sector for promoting & providing good goverence and reducing corruption in various Govt & Non Govt Deptt’s. The Govt College of Engg & Technology (GCET) – Jammu have been constantly playing a active role in educating the masses about the significance of ICTs in our day to day life by organizing regular workshops and conferences in emerging areas of information & communication technology.
(The author is Senior Assistant Professor)
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