Decisive Action to Combat Corruption in the Political Class and Public Services in South Asia

It’s the generational character of this wave of protests across South Asia that’s new, that’s different: Gen Z and Gen Alpha are demanding transparency, accountability and open-data governance. They increasingly look east, to Taiwan, South Korea and to Singapore where open-data practices have been integrated into digital democracy.   

This blog contends that the use of technology to detect and deter corruption in public service is the sort of ‘East Asian’ style policy and action set that would resonate strongly with these young digital natives and help new governments burnish their technocratic and open data credentials.

I draw in the blog on my recent experiences making the case for such a platform in Bangladesh and my decades of experience working within South Asian governments.

As a fresh-faced project manager in Hyderabad in 2000 I remember the frisson caused by the unexpected release and publication on a website by the Vigilance Commissioner of India of the names of all serving IAS Officers who had continued to be promoted through the ranks while facing corruption charges or having been found guilty of serious offenses.  

The intense press interest about this move and the abrupt resignation of my difficult IAS counterpart the following day – he’d been charged with corruption while running the Tobacco Marketing Board some 10 years earlier – demonstrated the impact that open data and public opinion can bring to bear. 

Last year’s media scrum at, and extensive press coverage of, the launch of the Kurdish Regional Government’s (KRG) Asset Declaration and Tracking Platform – which MetricsLed designed and supports – showed just how much public interest there is in the whole question of unexplained wealth in public life.  

The blog concludes with a case study from the KRG and an outline of the timescale and resource requirements for the design and introduction of such a system.

What’s the key recommendation of this paper

Asset declaration: Interim and incoming governments in South Asia should consider the introduction of secure and auditable digital platform for public service wide asset declaration. 

Such a platform which aims to both detect and deter the illegal accumulation of wealth will help reformist governments to demonstrate both their determination to tackle corruption and to demonstrate technocratic intent.  Such a system, with the ability to flag anomalies and generate data which can later be used as evidence for investigators, provides deep insight into the nature of wealth accumulation amongst the political class and public servants.   

The problem to be solved

South Asia’s public services have pockets of excellence.  But in many countries of the region their reputation is deteriorating as more and more ordinary citizens push back and organise against corruption and rent seeking.   Recent revolutions in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal have been underpinned by significant Gen Z anger at graft, nepotism and lack of opportunity for youth employment.  India, with recent disturbances in Ladakh, and Pakistan look on anxiously. 

What then to do about corrupt officers with unexplained wealth, with luxury 4WDs or with children at elite private universities? 

In Bangladesh for example there is a paper based analogue system for asset and wealth tracking based on existing policies and laws, but this is ineffective, lacks transparency and is not applied consistently and does not often lead to prosecution for criminal behaviour:  In short, the current system neither deters nor detects the illegal accumulation of wealth.  The rapid cycling of IAS Officers through key Government Posts for a portion of the financial year – leaving before being held to account or audited – points to the continuing and endemic nature of the problem in India.

Sri Lanka’s Anti Corruption Commission (CIABOC) is the most advanced in its preparations for and roll out of such an electronic declaration system and there are lessons – positive and negative – to be drawn from that experience and case study to date as they move from a hybrid electronic/paper system to full electronic submission and automated verification over the course of the next 12 months with support from ADB and UNDP.

The solution

This blog sets out a solution and a course of immediate actions for introducing a digital asset declaration platform in South Asian countries with detail of the time, process, costs and impact of such a measure.

This could be done quickly, and cheaply using an off the shelf system and would generate significant positive publicity for the interim government such as that established last month in Kathmandu.  It would also immediately make it more difficult for public servants to amass wealth and would use technology to detect when they had done so.

Such a system could be self-financing – with fines for late registration – and would not only deter rent seeking behaviour, but detect it by linking to land and vehicle registration agencies etc and track foreign travel and/or international education of family members. 

Immediate action points

Interim or incoming governments should request that international donors should provide immediate financing to deploy an established and tested platform based on international best practice that should be configured and set up under the aegis of the country’s Public Service or Civil Service Commission and underpinned with some form of parliamentary or judicial oversight.

MetricsLed has an existing system, developed by ML and paid for by the UK which is already deployed in the Gulf, and could be set up and operational within 6 weeks from a decision to act.  Once arrangements were in place and the new government confident that progress was being made a concerted campaign could be prepared to hail this initiative.  

Such a platform isn’t a silver bullet that will bring corruption to a close.   But it is a decisive measure, a discrete action, that is conceptually easy to grasp and communicate and is highly likely to generate significant public interest.  It’s also step that’s relatively quick and cheap to launch and one that can quickly and clearly demonstrate technocratic intent.   So both in terms of real action and performative effect such a measure would score well.

Why take action now?

Pressure is growing on the various interim government of the region to take, and be seen to take, significant and decisive reform.  A decision to introduce an effective and central asset declaration platform and register for public servants would resonate extremely strongly with the public. 

Further it would demonstrate clearly that an IG such as that in Nepal and Bangladesh  – liberated from the constraints of electoral politics and with a unique mandate– is decisive and determined to push through difficult reforms to secure its legacy and lock in reforms but which an elected government would find very difficult to initiate given the range of stakeholders who have a vested interest in rent seeking and who require the public service to act in their partisan and political interests

How would a digital asset declaration system work?

The Government would authorise the setting up of an ‘off-the-shelf’ digital asset declaration system or platform.

1. A central platform, hosted in the Ministry for Public Administration, or Public Service Commission, avoids the muddle and scope for delay currently in place by working with and through appointing agencies and using paper-based files.
2. The platform – Cyber Security tested (pen-test) to international security service levels – would be set up in English and any other local languages in use by public servants.
3. It should apply to all senior cadres in the first instance, and should be mandatory for all entrants to public service.
4. The declaration form that is required should be straightforward and focus on cash, property, vehicles etc. It requires statements on and from close family.
5. The platform not only deters illegal wealth but detects it. While only requiring a small team of humans to support the system, the system is set up to support sampling and flags various triggers such as expensive new cars of a certain type, or children travelling for education to elite schools or living abroad.
6. It should be mandatory for the form to be updated annually with fines for late submission. Late submission fees are likely to be sufficient to make the system self-funded as is the case with such systems elsewhere.
7. Officers should also be required to file end of career statements are a precondition to receive pension and other end of career benefits.
8. Failure to file is a red flag and can trigger investigation and form evidence for prosecution.
9. The system is set up to cater for military/intelligence officers who can file on a ‘no name’ basis to avoid security risks etc.