Technology at the service of governments in the fight against corruption
Improving the efficiency and transparency of public administrations are some of the challenges facing countries worldwide. Corruption is a global problem with serious repercussions in different areas, such as the development of nations, economic growth and ensuring the provision of services to the population.
Faced with the incidence of corruption, governments have advanced in the process of digital transformation of the State and in the implementation of technological solutions that contribute to the fight against this scourge.
According to the World Bank, technology, along with other factors such as institutionality and leadership, has been instrumental in reducing opportunities for corruption, making fraud and abuse of public office for private gain more costly and less attractive.
According to the World Bank's 2020 report "Enhancing Government Effectiveness and Transparency: The fight against corruption" , technological solutions have been implemented around the world to reduce tax evasion, reduce spending or procurement, improve service delivery, enforce regulatory standards, monitor financial assets and prevent the flow of illicit gains, among others.
GovTech trends in the fight against fraud and corruption
The big data, cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, biometrics and blockchain are some of the technological trends that have contributed to fighting fraud and corruption in countries, according to the World Bank document.
Big data. Its power lies in extracting, processing and linking relevant data from a wide variety of sources such as figures, texts and images, with the aim of processing, analyzing and generating value to this information for decision making and public management. In environments such as Brazil, data mining and extraction techniques on social media and expenditure records have been used to point out fraudulent behavior by officials and politicians, the World Bank mentioned in its report.
Cloud computing. Cloud-based platforms and services allow for greater information storage, permanent access to documents and improved data management capacity. In Europe, the Government of Estonia created an application(X-Road) that works on the basis of cloud computing, which allows the distribution and exchange of data, both public and private, recorded in the country's information systems. The above, in order to achieve transparency of the entities. With robust clouds such as Amazon Web Services, it is possible to create and deploy solutions on a global scale in a matter of minutes.
AI and machine learning. These tools have been used to create machine learning systems, which review data to predict corrupt behavior, among other things. In countries such as Mexico, through AI and machine learning, tax authorities identified 1,200 companies and 3,500 fraudulent transactions, according to the World Bank. In Colombia, the company Nuvu created an AI solution that analyzes public contracts to identify possible cost overruns and thus ensure the proper use of resources and goods.
Biometrics. Digital linkage and authentication in the public sector, based on facial or voice biometrics, has made it possible to identify deceptions and scams such as ghost workers, provision of benefits to non-beneficiaries, improper transfer payments and other irregularities. In India, through India's Aadhar Program , the government has prevented fraud on benefits granted under social programs.
Blockchain. According to the World Bank, in the public sector, this technology fulfills a series of functions in which trust, independence and conflict of interest make data systems unreliable. Hence, through the blockchain provides legality to documents and processes such as elections and public records management.
Thus, technological advances and digitalization have been tools applied by governments in their fight against corruption and fraud, contributing to the goal of efficiency and transparency of public administrations.
