Technology's role in strengthen integrity in public policies and preventing corruption in Latin America

CAF's Economy and Development Report highlights how technological applications allow improvements in resource management, communication and intragovernmental monitoring, while enabling new channels for the dissemination of information within the State and towards citizens; among other benefits.

November 21, 2019

Technology can be a great ally in corruption prevention. One of its main applications is to improve the processes of public action auditing. For example, the digital recording of transactions such as government purchases, combined with data analysis techniques, can help identify risk factors and thus guide the efforts of control and investigation agencies. This is one of the recommendations of the Economy and Development Report (EDR 2019) “Integrity in public policies. Keys to prevent corruption ”, from CAF –development bank of Latin America-, which was presented today in Lima, Peru.
Technological solutions also provide the possibility of creating decentralized reporting platforms for irregularities and channeling citizen complaints. This should be taken advantage of by States in order  to reduce both high costs and the lack of trust in filing complains by traditional means, and thus fostering an active citizen's monitoring role.
“It's also essential to invest in transparency policies, relying on the possibilities offered by technology. Governments that digitize and give access to relevant information to combat corruption, such as those  related to public procurement and contracting processes, property and company registries, declarations of interests and assets of officials, among others, allow greater citizen scrutiny in the state's action. This can have a significant deterrent effect on corruption, ”said Gustavo Fajardo, CAF chief economist, during the presentation of the report.
Finally, technology allows reducing some spaces of excessive discretion. A case where this occurs is the completion of procedures before the administration, whose simplification and digitization helps to close power inequalities between citizens and officials. In this sense, EDR2019 highlights the importance of redoubling the efforts to simplify procedures that the countries of the region have made.
In his opening remarks, the President of the Council of Ministers of Peru, Vicente Zeballos, assured that “One of the guidelines of the Government of President Vizcarra is that of Integrity and the Fight Against Corruption. And as part of this we have instituted the Secretariat of Public Integrity and in each ministry we now have an Integrity office. As a government, we have made important commitments, one of which was the creation of the National Transparency Authority, with autonomy and independence. We want a transparent state, because that generates trust, "he added.
EDR 2019 seeks to contribute to the current reform agenda in favor of integrity in public policies. The study covers a wide spectrum of fields of action, including the operation and dissuasive capacity of the instances of state control and supervision; the role of entry mechanisms to bureaucracy and politics to select independent and honest officials; the exercise of citizen control and transparency initiatives; and the strengthening of legal processes and frameworks to limit the influence of private interests in public policy decisions.
The report presents a series of proposals to promote a comprehensive integrity agenda around a set of keys that include:
  1. Adopt protocols and decision formulas based on objective criteria.
  2. Strengthen audit systems and investigation and administration of justice capacities.
  3. Promote competitive and transparent electoral systems.
  4. Professionalize the civil service and base entry into the public service on merit.
  5. Improve the systems for generating and disseminating information on the actions of the State and officials.
  6. Empower citizens and foster more vigilant attitudes.
  7. Guarantee the operation of claim and complaint channels, and take advantage of the opportunities offered by technology to create new spaces.
  8. Strengthen institutions to avoid paying and offering bribes by individuals and encourage the adoption of compliance programs within companies.
  9. Invest in better regulation of lobbying activities, in the identification and management of conflicts of interest.
  10. Improve decision-making processes in especially vulnerable activities, such as the provision of
  11. public infrastructure.
EDR  also highlights the importance of factors that can help accelerate the process of adoption and implementation of reforms, such as international cooperation, integration into international markets and the role that technology can play through generation, opening and processing tools. of data.
After the presentation of the report, a panel of comments was held with the participation of Susana Silva Hasembank, secretary of Public Integrity of the PCM; Milagros Campos Ramos, PUCP teacher and Iván Lanegra, general secretary of the Transparency Civil Association, under the moderation of Manuel Malaret, CAF representative in Peru.
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