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IT in graft battle
Corruption means moral decay, according to Webster's dictionary. In that vein, the fight against corruption can be viewed as a fight against moral decay. Seen from this broad perspective, the role of information technology (IT) in the fight against corruption can be both as a tool and as a medium.
In the UN anti-corruption toolkit, 41 instruments have been identified as effective tools in the fight against corruption. These range from operational techniques such as transparency in government budgets to institutional arrangements such as the office of the ombudsman.
Fight against corruption today is not only a moral issue but an ugly economic issue. According to World Bank estimates, the global cost of corruption exceeds $1500 billion, which is nearly 20 times the size of our economy. Imagine what that means if we can extract even a 10 percent reduction of corruption through any means; it would add twice the economic output of Bangladesh to the world GDP.
On a localised perspective, if we can reduce corruption by half, our GDP will grow by 1 percent or more. Without investing another dollar, without doing any more work, we will grow the economy by one percent simply by halving the prevalence of corruption.
You do not have to be a math whiz to see the economics of this. We then have to ask our public officials, politicians and government administrators why are they not jumping the gun on this.
Of course, the reason is obvious, as long as the public officials and administrators enjoy the benefits of corruption with impunity, theywill be under no compulsion to reduce corrupt practices.
That is where the social and state institutions of integrity need to be nurtured and strengthened for the larger interest of the
nation. While family, religion and personal ethics form the pillars of social integrity, the state has many formal and informal institutions in this regard such as auditors, ombudsmen, parliamentary oversights, judiciary, press and media, civil society and others.
A national integrity system thus can sustain itself on the strength of core values prevalent in society, various formal and informal institutions and fundamental 'rule of law'. In order to uphold the national integrity system we must continuously and consciously fight against corruption at all limes. The means of such a fight are transparency, accountability and awareness.
Transparency can generally be ensured only through access to information and rule/criteria-based decision- making. Accountability' on the other hand can be ensured through continuous vigilance, recognition for good deeds and redemption for bad ones. For mass awareness on the fight against corruption, the role of education, media and civil society is of paramount importance.
IT can be a vital tool for all of the above. It can ensure transparency through enabling readily available information and enable on-line scrutiny of public decisions by the citizens in general and journalists in particular.
In case of accountability, IT can enable continuous monitor ing of performance by public
officials either in closed-user-groups (such as immediate supervisors and auditors) or through institutional intermediaries (such as recognised civil society' organs); score-keeping of rewards and penalties for good and bad deeds; and perpetual archiving of public records and documents.
For better awareness, IT can facilitate effortless dissemination of public information to the media and civil society; ensure mandatory disclosures regarding public procurements and decisions; and routinely remind all oversight organisations on important disclosures.
IT can also help fight corruption by strengthening public institutions through computer-
based dispensation of administrative and judicial functions, online citizen-services delivery and on-line tracking/monitoring of public services and compliance requirements.
We need to take on the fight against corruption and the use of IT to do so as a national priority. Bangladesh has ranked in the bottom five of all countries sur-veyed by Transparency International for the last 15 years. The use of IT through local soft ware and IT service firms is by far the most cost-effective way to curb corruption.
In the last two decades IT has helped reduce corruption and enhance efficiency in Bangladesh through piecemeal e-governance initiatives. If these are done in a more planned manner the results can be much more beneficial And such planning must take into account the use of local software and IT services because building any e-government application is like building a large multi-storied building. The tools of the trade are the same everywhere whether we use local or foreign workers and materials.
However, with foreign materials and workers the costs are obviously very high and the risk of non-delivery all too great. Crores of taxpayers’ money and years of civil service toil went nowhere in modernising many government departments where such IT projects exclusively depended on foreign sources like those at the judiciary’ and the finance ministry’. For unlocking the national economic output hidden underneath corrupt practices let's unleash the power of IT in combating corruption. And let's do that we our own IT resources.
The writer is the founder CEO of Technohaven Company Ltd and president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) He welcomes feedback at hnkanm@gmatl.com