ANTECEDENTS OF CORRUPTION AND

THE ROLE OF E-GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS Rahul De’

IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Presented By: Anirban Das
Key Idea
֍ Pre-existing relations (and political intention to keep it alive!) between government officials and citizens
determine the manner in which they interact and will continue to do so despite the introduction of e-government
systems.
֍ Exogenous conditions relating to existing laws also determine the corrupt practices that will persist. E-government
systems can affect small aspects, but unless the laws are modified there will be little effect.
֍ The secrecy surrounding corrupt practices that are to be disrupted with e-government systems will engender
resistance to such systems.
Key Quote
“Prior research on e-government has assumed that increase in transparency and efficiency will eventually lead to a
reduction in corruption. However, our research shows that existing conditions in which e-government systems are
introduced will determine, to a large extent, their effect on corruption” – Author
Key Issue / Question
֍ A “Rene Wagenaar Outstanding Paper” of successful secondary research.
֍ Extension possibilities
– Instance of corruption despite political will to avert it – can it be stopped and how.
– Understanding the chain - who and how they are benefitted by not implementing ICT stringent provisions
The Paper
֍ Corruption (i.e. the use of public office for private gain) - studied in economic and sociological context as 2 major topics - i) impact
of the causes and ii) nature of corruption. Endogenous corruption, in the context of socialist-influenced developing countries, was
benign in nature, helping to overcome the stifling regulations of govts that prevented economic growth. (necessary grease that made the
economic engines run). Exogenous corruption arises from the regulations imposed on bureaucrats by the state, acceptance of bribes is
seen to be a natural consequence. Corruption as consisting of two forms – i)`theft' is involved ii) it isn’t. Centralization enables the
bribers to pay at one place and then be assured that their services or permits are made available -this is `lump-sum' corruption. In a
decentralized situation independent bureaucrats may demand bribes, arbitrarily, without any guarantee of the service eventually being
available to the client.
֍ E-government systems enable government officers to deliver services through electronic means. E-govt systems in India have been
very popular with the state and central governments as a means of governance reforms. Bhoomi system - provides land records (called
RTC certificates) to land-owning farmers of Karnataka and the CARD system in Andhra Pradesh – designed to assist officials in the
sub-registrar’s office (SRO) complete the property registration procedure– both are extensively researched and adopted for more than 5
years.
֍ Prior to Bhoomi, certificates & request for mutation were handled manually by Village Accountant – they demanded, and received,
‘service fees’ for their services. For the project champion and the designers of the project the corruption and inefficiency of the Village
Accountant were the main motivations for Bhoomi’s implementation. Bhoomi achieves its objective of enabling farmers to quickly
access RTC certificates. Field study suggests little evidence of the young recruits having become corrupt, only petty corruption related
to records tampering might exist.
֍ CARD, thought to have potential to improve efficiency, transparency and hence reduce corruption in the Registration department
(AP) which originated from two sources - i) low-level functionaries: who demanded bribes for simple information & for providing
printed forms ii) authorities: to complete the registration & other services. The political leadership was as well as bribes. unwilling to
make deep changes in the existing processes, so the exogenous conditions retained their hold on the offices where the system was
introduced. As a result “corruption without theft” persists as officials issue stamp papers and collect the correct amount of revenues and
stamp duties from citizens as well as bribes.