India’s Fight Against Corruption Through Website: A Case Study Of I Paid A Bribe Website 533l35
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
INDIA’S FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION THROUGH WEBSITE: A CASE STUDY I PAID A BRIBE WEBSITE
OF
Executive Summary Corruption is major problem in India, which makes poor people’s live worse through additional cost and delay in public service delivery. Poor people in India pay $200 million dollar annually for free public services. This has been reflected in major corruption measurements i.e. Transparency International’s corruption perception index and Global Corruption Barometer, the World Banks’s Governance Indicators, where India performed poorly. In recent times, India experienced a surge of anticorruption initiatives by government and civil society organizations. One such initiative named “I Paid A Bribe”, a website founded by “Janagraha Centre for Citizenship” for bribe reporting, drew considerable attention. The website was initially based in India, later expanded to 14 more countries. This paper critically analyzed the success and scope of I Paid A Bribe (IPAB) website which focuses on India. The key issue the paper will explore is the effectiveness of IPAB in addressing corruption in India. In other words, the potential of a website to stimulate positive change in the fight against corruption. In doing so, the paper will try to broaden the scope of IPAB to tackle corruption, where India is seriously struggling. IPAB’s objective is to gather data on petty corruption, inform citizens about bribery trends and provide government with corruption information. The paper identified important stakeholders of IPAB’s program along with their respective roles, level of influence and level of interest. Md. Saidur Rahman
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
Stakeholder analysis identified government as a key player with high interest and influence in the anticorruption initiative, with citizens as another key player with low interest ad influence. IPAB’s core strategy is to collect, compile and analyze information from different bribe reports submitted by the s and disseminate to wider audience. IPAB collet four types of reports – I paid a bribe, I did not pay a bribe, I met an honest officer and I don’t want to pay a bribe. IPAB also produces location and sector specific data to show most corrupt places and departments. The paper applied IPAB’s operations into two good governance framework – one by Asian Development Bank and one by the World Bank – to explore which of those areas are addressed by IPAB. While IPAB’s operation responds to ADB’s framework effectively, its narrow objective limits it from addressing WB framework, which had broader perspective. By May, 2015, The total number of reports in IPAB website reached to 44,663 and the number of visitors to 4.5 million. However, IPAB’s success in preventing corruption is very little; until now, only two departments of Indian government brought some policy change influenced by IPAB’s operation. Strengths of IPAB include, anonymous reporting, legal advice to its s, recognition of honest officers, use of technology etc. The limitations IPAB face are urban focus, low internet penetration, little influence in policy change, no verification of information etc.
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
The paper identifies that IPAB, in spite of it limitation, has the potential to become an effective force in the fight against corruption. The paper suggests IPAB to broaden their mission, engage with all stakeholders, especially with the government and public officials and adopt a good governance approach. BACKGROUND: Corruption is a major problem all around the world especially in developing countries. Corruption increases the cost and delay the service what makes poor people’s lives more difficult. In India, poor people pay about $200 million dollar a year to receive government services, which are completely free (ADB 2013). The extensive corruption in India seriously disrupting many developmental efforts, where weak enforcement and lack of commitment by the government is failing to address the corruption problem strongly. The latest Corruption Perception Index of 2014 by Transparency International (TI), which explores how corrupt the public sector of a country is, placed India at 85th position among the 175 countries with and score of 38 out of 1001 (TI 2014). According to World Bank Governance Indicators in 2013, where control of corruption2 is one of the six indicators, India’s score for
1 Scores range from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). Source: http://www.transparency.org/research/i 2 Control of corruption reflects perceptions of the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain. This includes both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as "capture" of the state by elites and private interests.
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
controlling corruption is -0.563 and percentile rank is 35.89 (World Bank 2014). In Global Corruption Barometer 2013, another survey by TI to explore public opinion on corruption, 31% respondents expressed their concerns over increasing corruption for last two years4 (TI 2014). The survey also reported political parties (86% of respondents) and police force (75% of the respondents) as extremely corrupt5. All of these corruption measurements identified India as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Considering the widespread corruption in India, many interventions from government, business and non-profit sector emerged over the years. I Paid A Bribe was one such intervention initiated by a non-profit organization named “Janagraha Centre for Citizenship” in 2010 (OWFI6 2011). I Paid A Bribe (IPAB) is a website where s can report on retail or petty corruption through anonymous identity. Later, identifying better accessibility and larger mobile penetration, IPAB launched a text message based reporting system where people can use cell phone to report on bribery. Since its inception, IPAB expanded to 14 other countries like Pakistan, Syria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Guyana, with 15 more countries following soon. Each country has a different website, sometimes in their own 3 Point estimates range from about -2.5 to 2.5. Higher values correspond to better governance outcomes. 4 http://www.transparency.org/gcb2013/country/?country=india 5 Ibid. 6 OWFI stands for OneWorld Foundation India.
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
language. For the purpose of this paper, the analysis will refer to only IPAB’s Indian website. In this website, s can provide information on paying bribes, resisting bribes and meeting honest officers as well as they can ask for information on different public service. The reports of bribery include nature, number, pattern, types, location, frequency and values of the incidents they encountered when receiving public services7. IPAB’s unique approach has received considerable attention from different types of stakeholders. This paper will try to assess its success and explore the ways to improve its effectiveness to fight corruption.
Problem Identification: The paper will try to explore the effectiveness of IPAB in addressing corruption in India. In other words, the paper will analyze the potential of a website to fight against corruption. As recently Indian government introduced e-governance to provide public services in many areas e.g. acquiring license, paying taxes, clearing goods etc. (Chene 2009), using information technology for anticorruption purpose finds its relevance under the current circumstances The paper will also identify IPAB’s success, strength and limitations so that IPAB can enhance its operations and expand its impact.
7http://www.transparency.org/files/content/corruptionqas/376_technological_innovat ions_to_identify_and_reduce_corruption.pdf
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
IPAB’s Program Objective: The objective of IPAB is to explore the dynamics of petty corruption, in other worlds, bribery in daily life. IPAB’s “aim is not to identify people but to identify problem”8. IPAB intends to collect information of bribe reports and share it publicly, acting like an information hub for corruption activities. Though IPAB’s objective is narrow, this paper is trying to expand its horizon by considering IPAB’s potential to reach massive population and accumulate large amount of corruption related information. IPAB identifies that corruption has two sides: supply side, when citizens are interested to pay bribe, and demand side, when public officials demand bribes (OWFI 2011). The program addresses both sides through sharing information to both stakeholders. Stakeholder Analysis: Several important stakeholders can be associated with IPAB’s operations. Following table depicts different stakeholders and their roles related with IPAB’s interventions: Stakeholders
Roles
1. Janagraha (Implementing Agency)
Implements IPAB’s operation Manages IPAB website and provides funding Works as information hub to collect and share information
Level of Influence and Interest High Interest; Low influence
8 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/19/corruption-india-anna-hazare
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
2. Citizen
3. Government
4. Public Officials 5. Civil Society
6. International Nongovernme ntal Organizations Source: Part of the
Provides information on bribe Receives information on bribe and legislation Engages in paying bribes Participates in fighting corruption Receives information on corruption Enforce and regulates legislation Takes actions against corruption Opposes IPAB’s operation Engages in corruption Raise awareness against corruption Advocate for policy change Make government able Operates anticorruption programs Provides funding for anticorruption programs Offers guidelines to address corruption stakeholder analysis is drawn
Low Interest; Low influence
High Interest; High Influence
Low Interest; Moderate Influence High Interest; Moderate Influence
High Interest; moderate Influence
from OWFI case study
(OWFI 2011).
IPAB’s Strategy: IPAB’s core strategy is crowdsourcing information though anonymous submission of bribe reports by citizens. IPAB collects four types of stories: I paid a bribe, I did not pay a bribe, I met an honest officer and I don’t want to
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
pay a bribe (Bribe hotline)9. IPAB collects, compiles and analyzes data they receive in the website, Later IPAB produce an objective and accumulative reports and share among relevant stakeholders. In addition, IPAB prescribes citizens and government in the matter of corruption. In their model, IPAB went beyond exploring corruption by recognizing the honest officers. Furthermore, IPAB produces location and department specific aggregate data, which could be useful for policy makers to enforce stricter regulation in specific geographic locations and government departments. Applying IPAB’s Approach into Other Available Frameworks: IPAB’s approach can be further analyzed putting it into existing frameworks that are also trying to fight against corruption either directly or indirectly under the overarching concept of good governance. In this paper, two prominent frameworks by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank are used to analyze IPAB’s effort to address corruption, or even good governance, effectively. Though IPAB’s objective is not to address these frameworks, this paper is trying to match the scope of IPAB with these anticorruption guidelines. Asian Development Bank (ADB) identified four elements of good governance: ability, participation, predictability and transparency (ADB 1995). The
9 http://www.bu.edu/actforhealth/Presentations/Civil_Society_Political_Petty_Corruption_Ukraine_India.p df
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following table attempts to analyze relevance of IPAB in addressing this framework. ADB’S GOOD GOVERNANCE RELEVANCE TO IPAB FRAMEWORK 1. ability: This component can build capacity to hold public officials responsible for their actions. IPAB’s reports also carry the same job by revealing bribe incidents of government officials. 1A. Public Sector IPAB’s reports illustrates how public sector Management manages its operations. IPAB provides aggregated information of different sectors to identify most corrupt sectors and the amount of bribe money for respective sectors. 1B. Public Enterprise IPAB’s reports will help to identify the entry Management and Reform level of corruption i.e. the lowest level of officers involved in corruption. It will also identify for which services most people pay bribes. 1C. Public Financial IPAB provides its s information regarding Management different aspects of Right to Information Act from which citizens can ask local s to provide financial information for respective departments. 1D. Civil Service Reform IPAB’s reports recognizes the inefficiency of civil servants, which may be the result of incompetency or greed or necessity. Each reason can be addressed by recognizing the root problem, e.g. incompetency means civil service exam may be flawed, greed can be attributed to the motivation towards money and necessity can be referred to low salary structure of civil servants. 2. Participation: This element can empower government to obtain reliable information and citizen to monitor government actions. IPAB’s report and analysis will provide government information on corruption of its different sector and departments where citizens can monitor the performance of government services. 2A. Participation of IPAB engages a wide range of stakeholders Beneficiaries and Affected e.g. people who pay bribes, people who fight
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Groups
bribes, people who recognize an honest officer and people who seek information on public service. Moreover, the information is available to everyone including bribe takers, citizens, policy makers, and others. Every group can participate be affected from the information in IPAB website. 2B. Public sector/private IPAB’s focus is on public service delivery so it sector interface may not address the boundary of private service. However, it may address if private business are affected due to the corruption during licensing, tax payment etc. or itself involved in corruption. 2C. Decentralization of IPAB’s report will address if the corruption is public and service delivery concentrated in regional or local level of functions public sectors, which can provide a guideline for transfer of power to local level if necessary. 2D. Cooperation with IPAB’s expansion to other countries and nongovernment presence in national level policy dialogue organizations complies with this subcomponent. However, IPAB does not have any specific strategy to coordinate with other civil society actors in addressing 3. Predictability: This component will clarify citizens a clear idea on available laws and regulations and inform them about consistent and effective information. IPAB addresses this issue through providing suggestion to its s on how to avoid bribes. 3A. Law and Enforcement IPAB provides legal information to its s who ask for information using bribe hotline, which, to some extent, enhances enforcement mechanism. 3B. Legal frameworks for IPAB’s reports address the issue of corruption private sector development regarding acquiring license for business, access to utility, tax payment etc, which directly addresses legal issues exist in private sector development. 4. Transparency: This component will ensure accessibility and affordability of relevant information. IPAB’s information regarding corruption is free and available to its visitors. 4A. Disclosure of IPAB’s reports make bribe incidents available Md. Saidur Rahman
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Information
to everyone. It also recognizes the good public service delivery by honest officers.
Even though, IPAB’s focus is not good governance, IPAB in above way, more or less addresses all the ADB components of good governance. The World Bank (WV) uses another framework to measure good governance. The measure include six indicators and their relevance to IPAB’s operations are as following: WB Governance Indicators 1. Voice and ability: This captures the perception of citizen engagement in raising their concerns and holding government responsible for their actions. 2. Political Stability and Absence of Violence: This captures perceptions on citizen’s reaction to government’s violent activities. 3. Government Effectiveness: This captures the perception on quality of public services, civil service and degree of independence of government agencies and government’s legal and enforcement commitments. 4. Regulatory Quality: This captures the perception of government’s ability in policy formulation and legal enforcement.
5. Rule of Law: Captures the perception of people’s confidence in the legal environment of a country.
Relevance to IPAB IPAB provides a platform to the citizen to report on corruption which helps them to articulate their apprehension and inform about corruption to enforce ability. IPAB does not address the political situation or information on violent activities of the country. IPAB captures the information of the quality of public services through bribe reporting. There is some political connection to corruption in social safety net programs, which can also be found out from bribe reports. IPAB provides suggestion to its s on existing regulations to help them to avoid bribes. IPAB also points out at the best working enforcement mechanism, if it exist at all, to the s to receive public service. IPAB does not address this indicator effectively as its s are the ones who do not have trust in the country’s legal environment and asks for advice for best possible
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
6. Control of Corruption: This captures the perception of public power used for corruption.
solutions. So, IPAB’s information will tell only half of the story/ IPAB’s bribe reports elaborately identify the misuse of public power (corrupt officers) as well good use of public powers (honest officers).
The above table illustrates that WB indicators are too broad for IPAB to address. While one or two indictors can be relevant to IPAB e.g. control of corruption and voice and ability, the remaining indicators will not be addressed by IPAB’s interventions. IPAB’s Achievements: Within few years, IPAB accumulated a large amount of data on petty corruption. The total number of reports at IPAB website reached 44,663 by May, 2015 and the total amount of bribe payment was 260.76 crore Indian Rupee (USD 40.90 million) (IPAB 2015). Among the reports, 22,071 reports were on paying bribes, 2693 were on fighting bribes and 911 were on honest officers (IPAB 2015). According to the website, the most corrupt department in India was police, which ed for 17.6% of the bribe and the most corrupt city was Bangalore, which ed 13.7% of the reports (IPAB 2015). There was only one report on honest police officers. The traffic to IPAB was also significant, which comprised 4.5 million visitors since its inception to May 2015 (IPAB 2015). All the numbers indicate that the popularity and the s of the website is increasing at a good pace.
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
A survey by Janagraha, the implementing agency of IPAB, revealed that 36% of the s accessed the site to read bribe reports, 27% reported about paid bribes on the website and 34% visited the website to know how to avoid paying bribes (Anna & Simon 2012). Moreover, the survey found that 21% respondents avoided paying bribes using the information from IPAB website and 65% respondents received important information on fighting bribes (Anna & Simon 2012). Only 5% of the respondents reported that the information did not resist them from paying bribe (Anna & Simon 2012). In spite of IPAB’s success in data collection and sharing information, very little success can be contributed to actual policy change. One such example included when Department of Transport of government of Karnataka warned twenty of its officials based on IPAB reports (IPAB 2012). Some changes in operations of the motor vehicle department e.g. online application for license, automated driving test tracks etc. took place due to IPAB reports (Klitgaard 2012). Similarly, Department of Stamps and Registration made some changes in land registration based on reports in the IPAB website (Anna & Simon 2012). IPAB’s Strengths: IPAB’s strengths can be attribute to several areas. First, the website works as catalyst and information hub for fostering systemic change. Second, IPAB informs citizens about their rights and available legal mechanism to enforce those. Third, IPAB also has strong presence in popular online social network
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
platform where they inform and engage youth on the fight against corruption. Fifth, IPAB values honesty in public services through its reports on honest officers where almost no formal incentive available for such performance. Sixth, people can use both internet and cell phone to access and use the website. Seventh, the anonymous reporting protects its s from any backlash from respective government employees and departments. IPABS’ Limitations: IPAB faces several challenges in their operation. First, the s of the website are “informed and powerful citizens”, mostly urban citizens, who know about the tool and do not feel threatened by the corrupt officials they reported about (Wittemyer 2014). Second, the internet penetration in India is relatively low despite the rapid increase, which makes IPAB inaccessible to a vast group of people (Anna & Simon 2012). As of March 2014, only 68% of Indian population resides in rural areas who do not have broadband internet access and 3% household in India own a personal computer (Vian 2014). Third, the platform failed to influence a significant reform in the government (Wittemyer 2014). Fourth, the language of the website is English which further restricts its access where majority of population do not speak English. Fifth, the authenticity of reports is questionable due to anonymous reporting. In addition, IPAB faced structural barrier to operate in some countries, e.g. in China. The Chinese government shutdown the website on the ground that it
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
was not ed with relevant authorities10. This raises concerns about their operations within India as well. Sixth, IPAB does not have any mechanism to involve public officials within their existing framework to reflect upon the widespread bribery expressing their side of stories. Seventh, no clear strategy to involve civil society actors are currently available within IPAB’s strategy, which deprives IPAB’s efforts from their valuable input. Program Implications: As it is already stated earlier, IPAB possesses a narrow objective and intends to work as an information generation website. However, the paper identifies its potential to broaden their objectives and engage actively to fight against corruption. IPAB already has developed a critical mass on anticorruption issues and they can step forward to assume larger role in policy and ground level. IPAB can have better impact in fighting corruption if it can adopt following measures:
Broader Objectives: IPAB needs to broaden their objectives from being only information hub. IPAB needs to realize that collecting information may not reduce corruption by default. It requires better commitment to produce effective result. IPAB needs to focus in the areas where they can
utilize the information to reduce corruption actively. Engage with Government: IPAB’s one of the goals is to provide information to government to identify bribe prone areas. But, there is no clear and
10 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-06/17/content_12723800.htm
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
effective mechanism in the place which will ensure that government is using the information of IPAB website to address corruption. IPAB needs to devise such mechanism where they can connect with government’s anticorruption initiatives to improve their performance. For an example, IPAB can collaborate with government’s anticorruption cell to produce
annual corruption statistics named “the State of Corruption”. Engage with Other Civil Society Organizations: IPAB needs to collaborate with other organizations working on anticorruption. At present, IPAB does not have a definitive plan to collaborate with other civil society organizations to develop t programs or agendas where both can enhance their effectiveness utilizing others’ knowledge and experience. For an example, they can establish a network of anticorruption initiatives where they can build capacity on different areas and expand their reach to currently unexplored areas. They can also establish a common platform (website) to share their information on corruption and reduce the number
of ineffective programs. Engage Citizens: IPAB should provide an offline platform for its s and others can participate actively in the fight against corruption. In developing countries, consumers associations are not prominent. In this case, IPAB can initiate a consumer association specifically for public
service. Adopt Good Governance Approach: Corruption is a result of poor governance system; therefore, corruption should be tackled in a comprehensive manner. Currently, IPAB only addresses one aspect of good governance, which cannot be solve without taking care of other Md. Saidur Rahman
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
aspects of good governance, i.e. legal enforcement, public sector management, structure of civil service etc, which, in some way, perpetuate the corruption situation in the country. Comparing with ADB’s framework, this paper identified that IPAB’s approach has a potential to adopt a good governance framework and fight against corruption in a
comprehensive way. Engage Public Servants: IPAB can include public servants within their existing framework. Public officials are important stakeholders who are missing from IPAB’s picture now. While corruption is largely due to structural reasons, behavioral change among public official will motivate them provide efficient service delivery. For example, IPAB can introduce “IPAB’s Honest Officer Award” to recognize the honest officers reported by its s.
Reference: Asian Development Bank. (1995). Governance: Sound Development Management. Manila: ADB. Chene, M. (2009). Overview of Corruption and AntiCorruption Corruption Efforts in India. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre. Retrieved from http://www.u4.no/publications/overview-of-corruption-and-anti-corruptionefforts-in-india/ Davies, A., & Simon, J. (2012). Citizen Engagement in Social Innovation – A Case Study Report. Brussels: European Commission, DG Research. Retrieved from http://youngfoundation.org/wp-content/s/2013/11/citizen-engagein-soc-inno.pdf I paid a Bribe. (2012). Quarterly Report 2011-12 (Quarter 2). Bengaluru: Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy. I Paid A Bribe. (2015, 4 May). I Paid A Bribe. Retrieved May 4, 2015, from I PAid A Bribe Website: http://www.ipaidabribe.com
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Klitgaard, R. (2012). Social Media: A New Tactic in the Fight Against Corruption. Asian Journal of Public Affairs, 5(1), 8-12. OneWorld Foundation India. (2011). ICT Facilitated Access to Information Innovations: A Compendium of Case Studies from South Asia. New Delhi: OneWorld Foundation India. Retrieved from http://access2info.asia/Access_to_information.pdf Transparency International. (2014). Corruption by Country/ Territory. Retrieved May 5, 2015, from Transparency International: http://www.transparency.org/country#IND Vian, T. (2014). Civil Society Monitoring of Political and Petty Corruption: Ukraine and India. WHO Technical Working Group on Good Governance in Pharmaceutical Sector. Retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/actforhealth/Presentations/Civil_Society_Political_Petty_Co rruption_Ukraine_India.pdf Wickberg, S. (2013). Technological Innovations to Identify and Reduce Corruption. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre/ Transparency International. Retrieved from http://www.transparency.org/files/content/corruptionqas/376_technological_in novations_to_identify_and_reduce_corruption.pdf
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INDIA’S FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION THROUGH WEBSITE: A CASE STUDY I PAID A BRIBE WEBSITE
OF
Executive Summary Corruption is major problem in India, which makes poor people’s live worse through additional cost and delay in public service delivery. Poor people in India pay $200 million dollar annually for free public services. This has been reflected in major corruption measurements i.e. Transparency International’s corruption perception index and Global Corruption Barometer, the World Banks’s Governance Indicators, where India performed poorly. In recent times, India experienced a surge of anticorruption initiatives by government and civil society organizations. One such initiative named “I Paid A Bribe”, a website founded by “Janagraha Centre for Citizenship” for bribe reporting, drew considerable attention. The website was initially based in India, later expanded to 14 more countries. This paper critically analyzed the success and scope of I Paid A Bribe (IPAB) website which focuses on India. The key issue the paper will explore is the effectiveness of IPAB in addressing corruption in India. In other words, the potential of a website to stimulate positive change in the fight against corruption. In doing so, the paper will try to broaden the scope of IPAB to tackle corruption, where India is seriously struggling. IPAB’s objective is to gather data on petty corruption, inform citizens about bribery trends and provide government with corruption information. The paper identified important stakeholders of IPAB’s program along with their respective roles, level of influence and level of interest. Md. Saidur Rahman
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
Stakeholder analysis identified government as a key player with high interest and influence in the anticorruption initiative, with citizens as another key player with low interest ad influence. IPAB’s core strategy is to collect, compile and analyze information from different bribe reports submitted by the s and disseminate to wider audience. IPAB collet four types of reports – I paid a bribe, I did not pay a bribe, I met an honest officer and I don’t want to pay a bribe. IPAB also produces location and sector specific data to show most corrupt places and departments. The paper applied IPAB’s operations into two good governance framework – one by Asian Development Bank and one by the World Bank – to explore which of those areas are addressed by IPAB. While IPAB’s operation responds to ADB’s framework effectively, its narrow objective limits it from addressing WB framework, which had broader perspective. By May, 2015, The total number of reports in IPAB website reached to 44,663 and the number of visitors to 4.5 million. However, IPAB’s success in preventing corruption is very little; until now, only two departments of Indian government brought some policy change influenced by IPAB’s operation. Strengths of IPAB include, anonymous reporting, legal advice to its s, recognition of honest officers, use of technology etc. The limitations IPAB face are urban focus, low internet penetration, little influence in policy change, no verification of information etc.
Md. Saidur Rahman
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
The paper identifies that IPAB, in spite of it limitation, has the potential to become an effective force in the fight against corruption. The paper suggests IPAB to broaden their mission, engage with all stakeholders, especially with the government and public officials and adopt a good governance approach. BACKGROUND: Corruption is a major problem all around the world especially in developing countries. Corruption increases the cost and delay the service what makes poor people’s lives more difficult. In India, poor people pay about $200 million dollar a year to receive government services, which are completely free (ADB 2013). The extensive corruption in India seriously disrupting many developmental efforts, where weak enforcement and lack of commitment by the government is failing to address the corruption problem strongly. The latest Corruption Perception Index of 2014 by Transparency International (TI), which explores how corrupt the public sector of a country is, placed India at 85th position among the 175 countries with and score of 38 out of 1001 (TI 2014). According to World Bank Governance Indicators in 2013, where control of corruption2 is one of the six indicators, India’s score for
1 Scores range from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). Source: http://www.transparency.org/research/i 2 Control of corruption reflects perceptions of the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain. This includes both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as "capture" of the state by elites and private interests.
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
controlling corruption is -0.563 and percentile rank is 35.89 (World Bank 2014). In Global Corruption Barometer 2013, another survey by TI to explore public opinion on corruption, 31% respondents expressed their concerns over increasing corruption for last two years4 (TI 2014). The survey also reported political parties (86% of respondents) and police force (75% of the respondents) as extremely corrupt5. All of these corruption measurements identified India as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Considering the widespread corruption in India, many interventions from government, business and non-profit sector emerged over the years. I Paid A Bribe was one such intervention initiated by a non-profit organization named “Janagraha Centre for Citizenship” in 2010 (OWFI6 2011). I Paid A Bribe (IPAB) is a website where s can report on retail or petty corruption through anonymous identity. Later, identifying better accessibility and larger mobile penetration, IPAB launched a text message based reporting system where people can use cell phone to report on bribery. Since its inception, IPAB expanded to 14 other countries like Pakistan, Syria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Liberia, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Guyana, with 15 more countries following soon. Each country has a different website, sometimes in their own 3 Point estimates range from about -2.5 to 2.5. Higher values correspond to better governance outcomes. 4 http://www.transparency.org/gcb2013/country/?country=india 5 Ibid. 6 OWFI stands for OneWorld Foundation India.
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
language. For the purpose of this paper, the analysis will refer to only IPAB’s Indian website. In this website, s can provide information on paying bribes, resisting bribes and meeting honest officers as well as they can ask for information on different public service. The reports of bribery include nature, number, pattern, types, location, frequency and values of the incidents they encountered when receiving public services7. IPAB’s unique approach has received considerable attention from different types of stakeholders. This paper will try to assess its success and explore the ways to improve its effectiveness to fight corruption.
Problem Identification: The paper will try to explore the effectiveness of IPAB in addressing corruption in India. In other words, the paper will analyze the potential of a website to fight against corruption. As recently Indian government introduced e-governance to provide public services in many areas e.g. acquiring license, paying taxes, clearing goods etc. (Chene 2009), using information technology for anticorruption purpose finds its relevance under the current circumstances The paper will also identify IPAB’s success, strength and limitations so that IPAB can enhance its operations and expand its impact.
7http://www.transparency.org/files/content/corruptionqas/376_technological_innovat ions_to_identify_and_reduce_corruption.pdf
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
IPAB’s Program Objective: The objective of IPAB is to explore the dynamics of petty corruption, in other worlds, bribery in daily life. IPAB’s “aim is not to identify people but to identify problem”8. IPAB intends to collect information of bribe reports and share it publicly, acting like an information hub for corruption activities. Though IPAB’s objective is narrow, this paper is trying to expand its horizon by considering IPAB’s potential to reach massive population and accumulate large amount of corruption related information. IPAB identifies that corruption has two sides: supply side, when citizens are interested to pay bribe, and demand side, when public officials demand bribes (OWFI 2011). The program addresses both sides through sharing information to both stakeholders. Stakeholder Analysis: Several important stakeholders can be associated with IPAB’s operations. Following table depicts different stakeholders and their roles related with IPAB’s interventions: Stakeholders
Roles
1. Janagraha (Implementing Agency)
Implements IPAB’s operation Manages IPAB website and provides funding Works as information hub to collect and share information
Level of Influence and Interest High Interest; Low influence
8 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/19/corruption-india-anna-hazare
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
2. Citizen
3. Government
4. Public Officials 5. Civil Society
6. International Nongovernme ntal Organizations Source: Part of the
Provides information on bribe Receives information on bribe and legislation Engages in paying bribes Participates in fighting corruption Receives information on corruption Enforce and regulates legislation Takes actions against corruption Opposes IPAB’s operation Engages in corruption Raise awareness against corruption Advocate for policy change Make government able Operates anticorruption programs Provides funding for anticorruption programs Offers guidelines to address corruption stakeholder analysis is drawn
Low Interest; Low influence
High Interest; High Influence
Low Interest; Moderate Influence High Interest; Moderate Influence
High Interest; moderate Influence
from OWFI case study
(OWFI 2011).
IPAB’s Strategy: IPAB’s core strategy is crowdsourcing information though anonymous submission of bribe reports by citizens. IPAB collects four types of stories: I paid a bribe, I did not pay a bribe, I met an honest officer and I don’t want to
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
pay a bribe (Bribe hotline)9. IPAB collects, compiles and analyzes data they receive in the website, Later IPAB produce an objective and accumulative reports and share among relevant stakeholders. In addition, IPAB prescribes citizens and government in the matter of corruption. In their model, IPAB went beyond exploring corruption by recognizing the honest officers. Furthermore, IPAB produces location and department specific aggregate data, which could be useful for policy makers to enforce stricter regulation in specific geographic locations and government departments. Applying IPAB’s Approach into Other Available Frameworks: IPAB’s approach can be further analyzed putting it into existing frameworks that are also trying to fight against corruption either directly or indirectly under the overarching concept of good governance. In this paper, two prominent frameworks by the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank are used to analyze IPAB’s effort to address corruption, or even good governance, effectively. Though IPAB’s objective is not to address these frameworks, this paper is trying to match the scope of IPAB with these anticorruption guidelines. Asian Development Bank (ADB) identified four elements of good governance: ability, participation, predictability and transparency (ADB 1995). The
9 http://www.bu.edu/actforhealth/Presentations/Civil_Society_Political_Petty_Corruption_Ukraine_India.p df
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
following table attempts to analyze relevance of IPAB in addressing this framework. ADB’S GOOD GOVERNANCE RELEVANCE TO IPAB FRAMEWORK 1. ability: This component can build capacity to hold public officials responsible for their actions. IPAB’s reports also carry the same job by revealing bribe incidents of government officials. 1A. Public Sector IPAB’s reports illustrates how public sector Management manages its operations. IPAB provides aggregated information of different sectors to identify most corrupt sectors and the amount of bribe money for respective sectors. 1B. Public Enterprise IPAB’s reports will help to identify the entry Management and Reform level of corruption i.e. the lowest level of officers involved in corruption. It will also identify for which services most people pay bribes. 1C. Public Financial IPAB provides its s information regarding Management different aspects of Right to Information Act from which citizens can ask local s to provide financial information for respective departments. 1D. Civil Service Reform IPAB’s reports recognizes the inefficiency of civil servants, which may be the result of incompetency or greed or necessity. Each reason can be addressed by recognizing the root problem, e.g. incompetency means civil service exam may be flawed, greed can be attributed to the motivation towards money and necessity can be referred to low salary structure of civil servants. 2. Participation: This element can empower government to obtain reliable information and citizen to monitor government actions. IPAB’s report and analysis will provide government information on corruption of its different sector and departments where citizens can monitor the performance of government services. 2A. Participation of IPAB engages a wide range of stakeholders Beneficiaries and Affected e.g. people who pay bribes, people who fight
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
Groups
bribes, people who recognize an honest officer and people who seek information on public service. Moreover, the information is available to everyone including bribe takers, citizens, policy makers, and others. Every group can participate be affected from the information in IPAB website. 2B. Public sector/private IPAB’s focus is on public service delivery so it sector interface may not address the boundary of private service. However, it may address if private business are affected due to the corruption during licensing, tax payment etc. or itself involved in corruption. 2C. Decentralization of IPAB’s report will address if the corruption is public and service delivery concentrated in regional or local level of functions public sectors, which can provide a guideline for transfer of power to local level if necessary. 2D. Cooperation with IPAB’s expansion to other countries and nongovernment presence in national level policy dialogue organizations complies with this subcomponent. However, IPAB does not have any specific strategy to coordinate with other civil society actors in addressing 3. Predictability: This component will clarify citizens a clear idea on available laws and regulations and inform them about consistent and effective information. IPAB addresses this issue through providing suggestion to its s on how to avoid bribes. 3A. Law and Enforcement IPAB provides legal information to its s who ask for information using bribe hotline, which, to some extent, enhances enforcement mechanism. 3B. Legal frameworks for IPAB’s reports address the issue of corruption private sector development regarding acquiring license for business, access to utility, tax payment etc, which directly addresses legal issues exist in private sector development. 4. Transparency: This component will ensure accessibility and affordability of relevant information. IPAB’s information regarding corruption is free and available to its visitors. 4A. Disclosure of IPAB’s reports make bribe incidents available Md. Saidur Rahman
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
Information
to everyone. It also recognizes the good public service delivery by honest officers.
Even though, IPAB’s focus is not good governance, IPAB in above way, more or less addresses all the ADB components of good governance. The World Bank (WV) uses another framework to measure good governance. The measure include six indicators and their relevance to IPAB’s operations are as following: WB Governance Indicators 1. Voice and ability: This captures the perception of citizen engagement in raising their concerns and holding government responsible for their actions. 2. Political Stability and Absence of Violence: This captures perceptions on citizen’s reaction to government’s violent activities. 3. Government Effectiveness: This captures the perception on quality of public services, civil service and degree of independence of government agencies and government’s legal and enforcement commitments. 4. Regulatory Quality: This captures the perception of government’s ability in policy formulation and legal enforcement.
5. Rule of Law: Captures the perception of people’s confidence in the legal environment of a country.
Relevance to IPAB IPAB provides a platform to the citizen to report on corruption which helps them to articulate their apprehension and inform about corruption to enforce ability. IPAB does not address the political situation or information on violent activities of the country. IPAB captures the information of the quality of public services through bribe reporting. There is some political connection to corruption in social safety net programs, which can also be found out from bribe reports. IPAB provides suggestion to its s on existing regulations to help them to avoid bribes. IPAB also points out at the best working enforcement mechanism, if it exist at all, to the s to receive public service. IPAB does not address this indicator effectively as its s are the ones who do not have trust in the country’s legal environment and asks for advice for best possible
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
6. Control of Corruption: This captures the perception of public power used for corruption.
solutions. So, IPAB’s information will tell only half of the story/ IPAB’s bribe reports elaborately identify the misuse of public power (corrupt officers) as well good use of public powers (honest officers).
The above table illustrates that WB indicators are too broad for IPAB to address. While one or two indictors can be relevant to IPAB e.g. control of corruption and voice and ability, the remaining indicators will not be addressed by IPAB’s interventions. IPAB’s Achievements: Within few years, IPAB accumulated a large amount of data on petty corruption. The total number of reports at IPAB website reached 44,663 by May, 2015 and the total amount of bribe payment was 260.76 crore Indian Rupee (USD 40.90 million) (IPAB 2015). Among the reports, 22,071 reports were on paying bribes, 2693 were on fighting bribes and 911 were on honest officers (IPAB 2015). According to the website, the most corrupt department in India was police, which ed for 17.6% of the bribe and the most corrupt city was Bangalore, which ed 13.7% of the reports (IPAB 2015). There was only one report on honest police officers. The traffic to IPAB was also significant, which comprised 4.5 million visitors since its inception to May 2015 (IPAB 2015). All the numbers indicate that the popularity and the s of the website is increasing at a good pace.
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
A survey by Janagraha, the implementing agency of IPAB, revealed that 36% of the s accessed the site to read bribe reports, 27% reported about paid bribes on the website and 34% visited the website to know how to avoid paying bribes (Anna & Simon 2012). Moreover, the survey found that 21% respondents avoided paying bribes using the information from IPAB website and 65% respondents received important information on fighting bribes (Anna & Simon 2012). Only 5% of the respondents reported that the information did not resist them from paying bribe (Anna & Simon 2012). In spite of IPAB’s success in data collection and sharing information, very little success can be contributed to actual policy change. One such example included when Department of Transport of government of Karnataka warned twenty of its officials based on IPAB reports (IPAB 2012). Some changes in operations of the motor vehicle department e.g. online application for license, automated driving test tracks etc. took place due to IPAB reports (Klitgaard 2012). Similarly, Department of Stamps and Registration made some changes in land registration based on reports in the IPAB website (Anna & Simon 2012). IPAB’s Strengths: IPAB’s strengths can be attribute to several areas. First, the website works as catalyst and information hub for fostering systemic change. Second, IPAB informs citizens about their rights and available legal mechanism to enforce those. Third, IPAB also has strong presence in popular online social network
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
platform where they inform and engage youth on the fight against corruption. Fifth, IPAB values honesty in public services through its reports on honest officers where almost no formal incentive available for such performance. Sixth, people can use both internet and cell phone to access and use the website. Seventh, the anonymous reporting protects its s from any backlash from respective government employees and departments. IPABS’ Limitations: IPAB faces several challenges in their operation. First, the s of the website are “informed and powerful citizens”, mostly urban citizens, who know about the tool and do not feel threatened by the corrupt officials they reported about (Wittemyer 2014). Second, the internet penetration in India is relatively low despite the rapid increase, which makes IPAB inaccessible to a vast group of people (Anna & Simon 2012). As of March 2014, only 68% of Indian population resides in rural areas who do not have broadband internet access and 3% household in India own a personal computer (Vian 2014). Third, the platform failed to influence a significant reform in the government (Wittemyer 2014). Fourth, the language of the website is English which further restricts its access where majority of population do not speak English. Fifth, the authenticity of reports is questionable due to anonymous reporting. In addition, IPAB faced structural barrier to operate in some countries, e.g. in China. The Chinese government shutdown the website on the ground that it
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
was not ed with relevant authorities10. This raises concerns about their operations within India as well. Sixth, IPAB does not have any mechanism to involve public officials within their existing framework to reflect upon the widespread bribery expressing their side of stories. Seventh, no clear strategy to involve civil society actors are currently available within IPAB’s strategy, which deprives IPAB’s efforts from their valuable input. Program Implications: As it is already stated earlier, IPAB possesses a narrow objective and intends to work as an information generation website. However, the paper identifies its potential to broaden their objectives and engage actively to fight against corruption. IPAB already has developed a critical mass on anticorruption issues and they can step forward to assume larger role in policy and ground level. IPAB can have better impact in fighting corruption if it can adopt following measures:
Broader Objectives: IPAB needs to broaden their objectives from being only information hub. IPAB needs to realize that collecting information may not reduce corruption by default. It requires better commitment to produce effective result. IPAB needs to focus in the areas where they can
utilize the information to reduce corruption actively. Engage with Government: IPAB’s one of the goals is to provide information to government to identify bribe prone areas. But, there is no clear and
10 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-06/17/content_12723800.htm
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
effective mechanism in the place which will ensure that government is using the information of IPAB website to address corruption. IPAB needs to devise such mechanism where they can connect with government’s anticorruption initiatives to improve their performance. For an example, IPAB can collaborate with government’s anticorruption cell to produce
annual corruption statistics named “the State of Corruption”. Engage with Other Civil Society Organizations: IPAB needs to collaborate with other organizations working on anticorruption. At present, IPAB does not have a definitive plan to collaborate with other civil society organizations to develop t programs or agendas where both can enhance their effectiveness utilizing others’ knowledge and experience. For an example, they can establish a network of anticorruption initiatives where they can build capacity on different areas and expand their reach to currently unexplored areas. They can also establish a common platform (website) to share their information on corruption and reduce the number
of ineffective programs. Engage Citizens: IPAB should provide an offline platform for its s and others can participate actively in the fight against corruption. In developing countries, consumers associations are not prominent. In this case, IPAB can initiate a consumer association specifically for public
service. Adopt Good Governance Approach: Corruption is a result of poor governance system; therefore, corruption should be tackled in a comprehensive manner. Currently, IPAB only addresses one aspect of good governance, which cannot be solve without taking care of other Md. Saidur Rahman
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India’s Fight Against Corruption through Website: A Case Study of I Paid A Bribe Website
aspects of good governance, i.e. legal enforcement, public sector management, structure of civil service etc, which, in some way, perpetuate the corruption situation in the country. Comparing with ADB’s framework, this paper identified that IPAB’s approach has a potential to adopt a good governance framework and fight against corruption in a
comprehensive way. Engage Public Servants: IPAB can include public servants within their existing framework. Public officials are important stakeholders who are missing from IPAB’s picture now. While corruption is largely due to structural reasons, behavioral change among public official will motivate them provide efficient service delivery. For example, IPAB can introduce “IPAB’s Honest Officer Award” to recognize the honest officers reported by its s.
Reference: Asian Development Bank. (1995). Governance: Sound Development Management. Manila: ADB. Chene, M. (2009). Overview of Corruption and AntiCorruption Corruption Efforts in India. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre. Retrieved from http://www.u4.no/publications/overview-of-corruption-and-anti-corruptionefforts-in-india/ Davies, A., & Simon, J. (2012). Citizen Engagement in Social Innovation – A Case Study Report. Brussels: European Commission, DG Research. Retrieved from http://youngfoundation.org/wp-content/s/2013/11/citizen-engagein-soc-inno.pdf I paid a Bribe. (2012). Quarterly Report 2011-12 (Quarter 2). Bengaluru: Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy. I Paid A Bribe. (2015, 4 May). I Paid A Bribe. Retrieved May 4, 2015, from I PAid A Bribe Website: http://www.ipaidabribe.com
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Klitgaard, R. (2012). Social Media: A New Tactic in the Fight Against Corruption. Asian Journal of Public Affairs, 5(1), 8-12. OneWorld Foundation India. (2011). ICT Facilitated Access to Information Innovations: A Compendium of Case Studies from South Asia. New Delhi: OneWorld Foundation India. Retrieved from http://access2info.asia/Access_to_information.pdf Transparency International. (2014). Corruption by Country/ Territory. Retrieved May 5, 2015, from Transparency International: http://www.transparency.org/country#IND Vian, T. (2014). Civil Society Monitoring of Political and Petty Corruption: Ukraine and India. WHO Technical Working Group on Good Governance in Pharmaceutical Sector. Retrieved from http://www.bu.edu/actforhealth/Presentations/Civil_Society_Political_Petty_Co rruption_Ukraine_India.pdf Wickberg, S. (2013). Technological Innovations to Identify and Reduce Corruption. Bergen: U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre/ Transparency International. Retrieved from http://www.transparency.org/files/content/corruptionqas/376_technological_in novations_to_identify_and_reduce_corruption.pdf
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