Building Trust through E-Government: Leadership and Managerial Issues

Subhash Bhatnagar
Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad

Abstract
Erosion of citizen’s trust in Government due to rampant corruption at various levels in the
Government ought to be an area of serious concern for developing countries and development
agencies. A well-planned e-government strategy can build a more efficient, accountable and
transparent government. If planned in consultation with representation from key stakeholders,
e-government applications can rebuild citizen trust in government, by improving service
delivery, reducing corruption and empowering citizens to participate in advancing good
governance. The paper discusses few examples of eGovernment where corruption was
significantly reduced and draws lessons on leadership and managerial issues in deploying
ICTs to combat corruption.

What is Public Trust?

According to an OECD report public service is a public trust1. Citizens expect public servants
to serve the public interest with fairness and to manage public resources properly on a daily
basis. Fair and reliable public services inspire public trust and create a favorable environment
for businesses, thus contributing to well-functioning markets and economic growth.
The OECD report identifies a number of core public service values as being important for
building citizen trust. These include: impartiality; legality; integrity; transparency; efficiency;
equality; responsibility and justice. Many of these core values have been compromised with
the spread of corruption in its various manifestations in many developing countries. UNDP
defines corruption as the misuse of public power, office or authority for private benefit –
through bribery, extortion, influence peddling, nepotism, fraud, speed money or
embezzlement2. Corruption is principally a governance issue – a failure of institutions and a
lack of capacity to manage society by means of a framework of social, judicial, political and
economic checks and balances. In the wake of globalization and increased pressures for
improving “governing institutions,” there is a global demand for accountable and transparent
governance.

Strategies to Reduce Corruption

Two major factors that contribute to the growth of corruption are the low probability of
discovery, and perceived immunity against prosecution. Secrecy in government, restrictions
on access to information by citizens and the media, ill-defined / complex and excessive rules,
procedures and regulations can all lead to a low chance of discovery. A lack of transparency
in the functioning of government agencies can make it easy for the perpetrators to cover their
tracks thus making unearthing of corruption very difficult. The weak character of institutions
which are supposed to investigate charges of corruption and prosecute the guilty, as well as
an inefficient or corrupt judiciary further exacerbate the problem of corruption and facilitate
immunity of perpetrators against prosecution. Strategies to reduce corruption must therefore

1
OECD (2000). Building Public Trust: Ethics Measures in OECD Countries. Retrieved from
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/60/43/1899427.pdf
2
UNDP (2004). Anti-Corruption Practice Note. Retrieved from
http://www.undp.org/policy/docs/practicenotes/Anti%20Corruption%20Note%20Draft%20FINAL%20copy%2
0edited%20100404.pdf
target multifaceted reforms in the legal system, judicial processes and functioning of agencies
delivering services. The extent of corruption needs to be measured and media needs to
sensitize the society to the long term detrimental effects of corruption.

Can eGovernment help in Combating Corruption?

For some years there has been anecdotal evidence of impact on corruption from a large
number of eGovernment case studies from developing countries. However, recent studies3
that assessed impact of eight wide scope and scale projects from India and two in Chile
provided more concrete evidence (see Figure 1 below for an assessment of Indian projects).
Corruption existed in six out of the eight projects before the service delivery was
computerized. After computerization two projects were able to reduce corruption to a very
significant extent and in 4 others there was a marginal reduction. The study used a systematic
survey of 250 randomly selected clients (users) who had used both the manual and
computerized systems in each project, seeking data on whether bribes were paid to get the
service, amount of bribes paid, perception of corruption within the service delivery agency
and perception on quality of governance in addition to several other attributes of a service
delivery system. Two projects studied in Chile4 also showed that corruption was reduced.
However, the fact that impact on corruption varies across projects suggests that the factors
that contribute to success and failure in tackling corruption need to be studied further.
Figure I Proportion paying bribes (Percentage)
40.00

35.00
33.82 34.32

30.00 29.71
28.02

25.00
23.71
21.61
20.00 20.42

15.00 14.48
14.17

10.00

5.68
5.00
3.35 2.71
0.84 0.74 0.84 0.40
0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00
AMC Bhoomi Bhoomi RTC CARD Checkpost eProcurement eSeva Kaveri Khajane DDO Khajane
Mutation Payee

Manual Computerised

There have been two general approaches used to integrate e-government in anti-corruption
initiatives. First, e-government can become one of the key components of a broader anti-

3
Study titled ‘Impact Assessment Study of E-government Projects in India’ submitted to Department of
Information Technology, Government of India; and ‘Impact Assessment Study of Computerized Service
Delivery Projects from India and Chile’ submitted to the World Bank, Washington. A presentation on the
findings from the eight Indian projects is available at http://www.mit.gov.in/cbw/findings-from-eight.pdf
4
ChileCompra and Tax Online in Chile showed reduced corruption.
corruption strategy as is demonstrated by the OPEN system installed in the Seoul
Municipality in the Republic of Korea5.
Second, service delivery improvement initiatives can be implemented in corrupt departments,
specifically targeting transparency and reduced corruption as objectives. An example is the
Bhoomi project in India. Both these cases are discussed in detail.

Integrating E-government in Anti-corruption Initiatives

Efforts to prevent corruption can be complemented with e-government strategies that review
and clarify procedures and practices,
OPEN Initiative, Republic of Korea
and design systems that simplify,
standardize and de-personalize the In 1998, Seoul’s Mayor initiated an anti-corruption
delivery of services. Of course this programme, the Online Procedures Enhancement for
Civil Applications (OPEN) Initiative, which opened up
needs to be complemented with civil governmental procedures to the public. This project is
service reform, as well as, societal widely recognized as an effective example of political
education efforts in reducing tolerance and managerial commitment to transparency and for its
to corruption and reinforcing impact on corruption.
fundamental values such as honesty. A review team analyzed the entire set of civil
applications for permits and approvals, and identified 26
E-government can also help monitor categories of civil applications that most frequently
corruption and hence better enforce laws caused irregularities and inconvenience to citizens. A
and policies that ensure accountability development team prioritized the details to be made
and transparency by standardizing data public on a web portal. For each of the 26 categories, the
collection methods, tracking actions and OPEN website contains information on application
procedures and contact information of departmental
decisions and developing a persons-in-charge so that citizens can monitor
feedback/complaint mechanism. This applications and raise questions in the event any
needs to be complemented with the irregularities are detected. Examples of civil
development of institutions, laws and applications include: building permits and inspection;
practices that protect “whistleblowers,” approval and sanction of entertainment establishments
and song bars; and decision and change of urban
imposing of powerful disincentives for development plans.
corruption and punishment for those
A total of 5,000 employees in 485 city departments
involved in corruption. dealing with applications were trained to operate the
A major part of the OPEN Initiative was system and add and change the data. Following training,
focused on the simplification of usernames and passwords were assigned to allow each
individual trainee to make entries at his or her
regulations and procedures, department.
reengineering of work practices,
Results from surveys by the Audit and Inspection
transparency in procedures, effective Division of the city government and Transparency
communication with the citizens, and International showed very positive results in combating
training, rather than the technology. corruption. In a 2005 survey, 69% were satisfied with
Technology was used as a tool to the system and 64% thought that the system helped
achieve its goal. Two factors, in preserve transparency in administration. The number of
visitors to OPEN is about 1.3 million. The number of
particular contributed to the success improprieties in 8 key departments came down by 54 -
in implementation. First, there was 83% in one year.
strong leadership provided by the
mayor and second, widespread citizen participation.
There is an implicit hierarchy of objectives that e-government applications must consider in
an anti-corruption programme. Increasing access to information; presenting the information

5
The URL of the document on OPEN which mentions results of a survey is:
http://english.seoul.go.kr/gover/initiatives/down/OPEN_System.pdf
in a manner that leads to transparency of rules and their applications in specific decisions;
and increasing accountability by building the ability to trace decisions / actions to individual
government officials, represent the successive stages in the hierarchy. All these objectives in
tandem can curb corruption significantly, and ignoring some of them can defeat the whole
purpose. Media, as an alert watchdog, plays a significant role in providing information and
generating widespread debate around significant issues of public concern. There is no
specific sequence in which different kinds of reforms are introduced. Often they run a parallel
course, depending on the state of the starting condition.

E-delivery of Service Targeting Corruption Prone Departments

In the state of Karnataka in India, one of
the first eGovernment applications to be
implemented was Bhoomi for
computerization of land records6.
Department dealing with land records
are known to be corrupt and
mismanaged in the entire sub continent
of South Asia. The project achieved
success because it made the data
transparent. Any one can get a copy
of any land record. Processes were
reengineered to take away
unnecessary discretion from civil
servants to delay or deny the service.
Now all applications are accepted at a
computerized kiosk and date stamped.
The applications must be processed in a
FIFO order, taking away the power to
expedite any transaction.
Thanks to a central Government
grant, the revenue department could
create an adequate infrastructure to
support the Bhoomi initiative. An
investment of Rs 216.35 million was
used to equip 206 centers with hardware
/ software and connect such centers to a
state wide area network. A central data
center was built to which all the data on
land records is uploaded. Eight hundred
kiosks set up by a private partner can
print the RTCs in rural areas by
accessing the central data base over the
Internet.
The Bhoomi Project, India
The Bhoomi project which was able to eliminate
corruption is analyzed. The Bhoomi (meaning “land”)
project developed an online system that delivers land
records to the farmers in Karnataka, India. Prior to the
Bhoomi project, an estimated 9,000 village accountants
(each serving 3-4 villages) maintained the land records in
Karnataka. These records were not open to the public and
farmers had to bribe the accountants to obtain a copy of
the Record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC), a
record that is mandatory for various purposes such as
bank loan application.
The Bhoomi Project computerized 20 million land
records by capturing legacy data records maintained by
the village accountants. A copy of the RTC can now be
obtained by anyone after providing the name of the
owner or plot number and a fee of INR 5.00 (USD 0.33)
at computerized kiosks in the 206 sub-district offices.
The clients can also see the transaction online through a
second computer screen facing them. Nearly 800 rural
kiosks can also issue a copy of the RTC.
When a change of ownership takes place through sale or
inheritance, farmers can file an application at the kiosk.
The requests can only be processed on a first-come-first-
serve basis. Each request is assigned a number that can
be used by the client to track the status of the application
on a touch-screen in some kiosks or by asking the kiosk
operators. The Revenue Inspector will approve the
request within the prescribed period (30 days from the
notice date) if the request is valid. Following verification,
a notice is automatically generated by the computer
system to the affected parties and the system updates the
particular land record. Operators of the computerized
system are made accountable for their decisions and
actions through a login system. The number of RTC
transactions nearly doubled from 6.56 million to 12
million per year in last 4 years. The number of mutations
grew from 0.29 million in 2003 to 1.03 million in 2005.
Growth in transactions indicates increasing trust in the
system.

6
Bhatnagar, Subhash and Chawla, Rajeev (2007), Online delivery of land titles to rural farmers in Karnataka. In
Deepa Narayan and Elena Glinskaya (Eds.), Ending Poverty in South Asia: Ideas that Work, pp 219-243. World
Bank. Also see Bhoomi Project Website: http://www.revdept-01.kar.nic.in/
Resources were committed to build organizational and individual capacity by training
all employees from senior officials to clerical staff. To allay the fears of field officials, twelve
state-level information seminars were organised for 1,200 senior and mid-level officers.
Additionally, four division-level workshops were organised to train 800 officials. These seminars
emphasised that maintenance of land records was only one of their many functions and that
computerisation would remove the drudgery of maintaining these records manually. Reducing
corruption was not a key message at these gatherings although it was one of the explicit
objectives in conceptualizing the project. Using e-government to fight corruption is often
incidental and not part of the design objectives in most projects.
The political executive was completely involved in the computerisation project. The state
chief minister and revenue minister highlighted the importance of the project publicly. The chief
minister wrote regularly to all district deputy commissioners, exhorting them to get fully involved
in the computerisation. He inaugurated a large number of land record kiosks. Meanwhile, the
revenue minister regularly reviewed the computerisation process and also inaugurated a large
number of kiosks. A committee of Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) visited the
kiosks and deputy commissioners invited MLAs of their districts to witness the functioning of
kiosks. All this helped demonstrate that there was a strong political will for computerisation.

The Way Ahead

Above examples lend credence to the belief that technology can transform government’s
often-negative image. In many countries, citizens view their governments as bloated,
wasteful, and unresponsive to their most pressing needs. Mistrust of government is rife
among the public and businesses. Civil servants are often seen as profiteers. Although, e-
government should not be seen as a panacea for the complex and well-entrenched problems
of corruption, e-government is one of the many tools whose potential in tackling these
problems needs to be recognized by decision makers. Unfortunately, reducing corruption has
not been a part of many reform programs and e-government initiatives. The following
suggestions can go a long way in creating the enabling environment that will foster many
more anti-corruption initiatives.
Build political commitment: Mere existence of anti-corruption and e-government strategies
does not guarantee that corruption will be curbed. Commitment of political elites (including
adequate financial resources) is of key importance to the success of all government anti-
corruption programmes, including those with ICT component. Backed by political leadership,
project leaders can reengineer processes that take away arbitrary power from civil servants
and political commitment could lessen the traditional resistance to change. The cross-cutting
and multi-stakeholder nature of e-government initiatives makes it more important that there is
strong leadership and political commitment among different government ministries and
agencies. Political commitment needs to be demonstrated through specific actions.
Provide legal support: E-government can lead to transparency provided that the legal
framework supports free access to information. Until a few years ago most countries still had
strict national secrecy laws. These were repealed in favour of Freedom of Information Laws
in the U.S. and much of Europe, but only after decades of lawsuits. Secrecy laws are still in
effect in much of the developing world. India did well to enact a freedom of information act
in 2005 which is already bearing fruits. Whereas in most developing countries criminal laws
penalise specific forms of corruption, laws must also punish attempted corruption and breach
of core values enunciated earlier. Clear and known procedures that facilitate the reporting of
wrongdoing and provide protection for “whistleblowers” can assist the detection of individual
cases of misconduct.
Promote access and use: Increasing availability of information on the Internet is not
sufficient. Providing universal access, promoting literacy, fostering people’s participation in
governance are some of the key challenges of any e-government applications. Media, as an
alert watchdog, plays a significant role in providing information and generating widespread
debate around significant issues of public concern.
Show evidence: Much of the evidence linking e-government with reduction in corruption is
anecdotal. Only in a couple of cases has the impact on corruption of e-government
applications been audited independently. Systematic surveys of citizens and other
stakeholders can help establish the linkage more clearly and will also provide invaluable
feedback on the parts of the system that need improvements.

References
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http://www.apdip.net/resources/governance/egovernance-egovernment/APDIP-eGovPaper-
Subhash.pdf
Bhatnagar, Subhash (2004). E-Government: From Vision to Implementation. India: Sage
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