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Executive Summary
Corruption is major problem in India, which makes poor peoples 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 Internationals
corruption perception index and Global Corruption Barometer, the World
Bankss 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. IPABs 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 IPABs program
along with their respective roles, level of influence and level of interest.
Md. Saidur Rahman
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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 peoples 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, Indias score for
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language. For the purpose of this paper, the analysis will refer to only IPABs
Indian website. In this website, users 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. IPABs 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 IPABs 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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Roles
1. Janagraha
(Implementing
Agency)
Implements IPABs
operation
Manages IPAB website and
provides funding
Works as information hub
to collect and share
information
8 http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/19/corruption-india-anna-hazare
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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 IPABs operation
Engages in corruption
Raise awareness against
corruption
Advocate for policy change
Make government
accountable
Operates anticorruption
programs
Provides funding for
anticorruption programs
Offers guidelines to
address corruption
stakeholder analysis is drawn
(OWFI 2011).
IPABs Strategy:
IPABs 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 dont want to
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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 IPABs Approach into Other Available Frameworks:
IPABs 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 IPABs effort to address corruption, or even good
governance, effectively. Though IPABs 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:
accountability, 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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Groups
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Information
Even though, IPABs 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 IPABs operations
are as following:
WB Governance Indicators
1. Voice and Accountability: 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 citizens reaction to
governments violent activities.
3. Government Effectiveness: This
captures the perception on quality
of public services, civil service and
degree of independence of
government agencies and
governments legal and
enforcement commitments.
4. Regulatory Quality: This captures
the perception of governments
ability in policy formulation and
legal enforcement.
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 accountability.
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 users
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
users to receive public service.
IPAB does not address this indicator
effectively as its users are the ones
who do not have trust in the
countrys legal environment and
asks for advice for best possible
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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 accountability, the remaining indicators will not be
addressed by IPABs interventions.
IPABs 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 accounted for 17.6% of the bribe and the most
corrupt city was Bangalore, which accounted 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 users of the website is increasing at a good pace.
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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 users
from any backlash from respective government employees and departments.
IPABS Limitations:
IPAB faces several challenges in their operation. First, the users 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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was not registered 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
IPABs strategy, which deprives IPABs 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:
10 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2011-06/17/content_12723800.htm
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of ineffective programs.
Engage Citizens: IPAB should provide an offline platform for its users 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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comprehensive way.
Engage Public Servants: IPAB can include public servants within their
existing framework. Public officials are important stakeholders who are
missing from IPABs 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
IPABs Honest Officer Award to recognize the honest officers reported by
its users.
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/uploads/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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