Anti-corruption authorities and citizens involvement – Carl Gilmour

Concerning corruption of any kind within the American System of governance & or business, there are many avenues by which one may engage authorities to report and receive assistance.  Throughout this brief essay we will outline two categories of authority that may be accessed in so order to accomplish this.  The Department of Justice & Corporate Governance are two of the most common channels utilized by individuals to effectively address any issues regarding ethical infractions of any category.

The nature of corruption is such that it, many times, remains elusive & illusory to the monitoring bodies that may be best equipped to address the infractions initially.  It is a remarkable mixture of recent advancements in emerging technologies & the unwavering dedication of average citizens & employees that manages to correct the deficit of oversight when such issues arise.  Whether by chance or coincidence illicit matters meant to remain obscured from the general public always find a way into the atmosphere for one or more bystanders to interpret as they may.  Reporting suspicious behaviors and activities remains at the core of a Country’s or companies very integrity.  The United States of America has established a Department of Justice and within this massive agency, in all of its capacity, are a great many outfits activated towards the objective of addressing corruption across a broad category.  A combination of incoming information concerning suspicious activities keeps the men & women of law enforcement quite busy. (Please note that the attachments in corresponding documents outline the hierarchy of the Department of Justice)

As an alternative to disrupting the daily operations by directly involving law enforcement agencies, many business by-laws create a solution by way of Corporate Governance.  By-Laws can be structured in any number of ways meant to address unethical infractions of any nature in a number of ways as a means to mitigate any unsavory activity before it becomes a public matter which may debilitate or potentially cripple the business.  The internal process for this may vary widely, however the objective remains universal in that it is aimed at resolution.  Shareholders, customers & employees play the largest role in this option at reporting suspicious activities that appear unethical.  Toll free hotlines are readily made available to customers as a mechanism to access a dispute resolution in addition to serving as an effective tool gather documentation of specific instances in which a customer or employee or anonymous individual feels as though, perhaps, the company has engaged in some manner of activity that effectively undermines their core principle, objective, protocol, or ethical standard.  The toll free hotlines have managed to acquire a wealth of useful information when harvested to produce a proactive campaign at correcting its course.  Many times average employees serve as the best line of defense when assessing unscrupulous practice that may be damaging to the company’s image on the public stage, and they may access the structure of corporate governance by the same toll free line meant for the end consumer or by an open door policy.  The open door policy allows for employees, volunteers, & individuals within an organization to effectively address concerns that they may be experiencing without fear of repercussion.  Each method serves the purpose of documenting disputes masterfully.

The Department of Justice is the ultimate authority overseeing issues pertaining to complaints regarding corruption and unethical conduct as is applicable under law.  Officials, businessmen, & citizens from across a broad spectrum of society are afforded access to the many institutions within this Department of Justice to accomplish any number of objectives aimed at dispute resolution. From local authorities to elected officials to the community of businesses and a host of advocates meant to create a healthy system of checks and balances access to justice ideally, really remains at arm’s reach from any United States citizen.  Toll free lines such as Crime Stoppers have been utilized across the country in much the same fashion as a customer complaint line with great success.  Citizens can report suspicious activities anonymously or with accompanying information to effectively issue supporting evidence or Affidavit.  Advocates may appear on behalf of individuals or special interest groups in order to legally secure provisions against malfeasance, malpractice, or abuse of office by any elected official as well as any business within the community.  Legislation serves as the ultimate definition of what will and will not be tolerated per district, region, City, & State as opinions tend to vary widely concerning controversial issues across the country.

An issue pertaining to corruption involving our banking system has been in the media as of late and it serves as a prime example of the system of checks and balances that I’ve outlined.  Legislation happened to create a governing body called the CFPB – Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which was tasked with the objective at maintaining integrity of our banking institutions and lenders. This task force has effectively managed to detect and prosecute many offenses throughout its tenure including our recent Wells Fargo banking fiasco whereby cross selling, creation of fake accounts for the impression of greater yield and fees associated with services assigned to customers without consent.  As one example of recent evidence it is impressive.

Corruption, greed, crime, scandal, and unethical behaviors have become an accepted certainty throughout our culture & history.  As unfortunate a reality as that may be it is with prestige and prominence that our institutions of Justice manage to maintain the peace and security of the commonwealth with conviction.

 

 

Learner’s Submission: UN E-Government Survey

“Please define Whole-of-Government to the best of your ability and describe the whole-of-government approach in the context of e-Government.

Whole-of-Government is a cross-cutting concept applicable to different contexts as problem solving approach. Multi-faceted and complex issues require to be addressed in an integrated and coordinated manner, with a holistic vision. It fundamentally means that government organizations playing different roles and holding different responsibilities, are actively involved , to identify and implement the right solution by co-operating.

Combining the efforts of the interested government bodies at different levels ( national and sub-national) allows to effectively address the problem. Adopting a Whole-of-Government approach is strategic, for instance, in tackling the challenges of the Sustainable Development (SD), as SD has social, economic and environmental implications : this entails for government organizations to co-operate, overcoming the fragmentation of duties and responsibilities (from national government to sub-national (regional and local) government authorities or from one government department to another) that can negatively affect the outcome of whatever government action. Co-operating is translated into integrating policy-making processes, programmes and services and modalities for delivering policies, programmes and services to citizens. Furthermore, it implies sharing and integrating information ( the term used to define this is interoperability).

Example of Whole-of-Government approach : the Australian Government is committed to creating an integrated procedure for the environmental assessment and approval of projects of national interest, conducting a single environmental assessment and approval process, in which both the Federal Government and States and Territories are involved at the same time. The Federal Government signs “assessment/approval bilateral agreements” with States and Territories, which are responsible for the approval of a project : no separate assessment/approval process is required from the Federal Government’s side.

With reference to e-Government, the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Public Administration for delivering information and public services and interacting with citizens (e.g. in decision-making), the Whole-of-Government approach materializes in providing citizens, businesses, organizations, with integrated online public services. Information and services related to a specific need of an end-user (citizen, business, organization) are aggregated in a single website or a limited number of websites with a single entry point (the website relevant for the particular need of the end-user) : this way of e-service delivery is summarized in the expression “One-stop-shop”. It allows to increase the effectiveness of the service delivery by reducing discomfort for end-users, saving time and financial resources thanks to streamlined and integrated procedures, making easily accessible data and information. The reference point in a State with high level of e-government development is the national portal containing information about every thematic area of the public governance ( e.g. : health, education, public safety, finance, labour, culture, environment) and links to government organizations, regional/local authorities or additional government websites (thematic portals), from which the user is redirected to the requested services.

Example of Whole-of-Government approach to E-Government : the United Kingdom government provides the instruments needed to set up and run a business, in a single website, the “Business and self-employed” section of the national portal, containing information and links to the interested government departments or entities.

If you were to explain the UN E-Government Survey to an individual who has never heard of it, what would you say and how would you describe the Survey and its methodology?

The UN E-Government Survey is the assessment of the e-government development status across the UN Member States (193 States).

E-Government is the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Public Administration in order to provide citizens, businesses, organizations, with information and public services in every area of public life (for instance : health, education, economy, labour, environment, infrastructures, culture, foreign affairs) and engaging citizens in decision-making processes.    Key components of e-government are : e-service delivery ( public services are delivered online), e-participation ( participation of citizens in public governance   through e-information ( citizens can access information in every thematic area by using dedicated government portals), e-consultation ( citizens participate in deliberation on policies and public services by means of discussion forums, surveys, use of social networks), e-decision making ( citizens contribute to designing of policies and modalities of delivering public services)), open government data ( government data such as laws and regulations, statistics, technical databases are easily accessible to citizens).

The Survey assesses the degree of e-government development by analyzing three aspects ( defined by means of three indexes, which are mathematically combined to get a value called E-Government Development Index (EGDI), used to establish a ranking of the UN Member States) : the online presence of government ( whose index is the Online Presence Index (OSI)), the development of telecommunication infrastructures ( corresponding index : Telecommunication Infrastructure Index (TII)), the education level of citizens ( Human Capital Index (HCI)). The information needed to evaluate the online presence, gathered by using a questionnaire and analyzing national portals and possible sectoral portals, is manipulated to get the index (OSI). Information necessary to calculate the three indexes is provided by, respectively, the UN DESA, ITU (International Telecommunication Union) and UNESCO. The EGDI is not an absolute measure of the e-government development : it serves as a tool to compare the UN Member States’ performance in e-government to each other.

The purpose of the Survey is to provide information about e-government development to citizens, governments, inter-governmental institutions, academia, private sector, civil society and suggest strategies to enhance it.”

Maria Capogreco, Locri, Italy

What needs to be done by Top Leadership to Align Human Resource Capacity Development with the Development Vision of the Country.

In a country or an organization of many people, goals are set to be achieved. These goals are not just assumed or they happen by themselves, processes or procedures are followed one after the other. For these to be followed, leadership is involved. The leaders start in different ways. Whatever the way is, there must be top leadership of such country or organization. These people take key and final decisions for the country and organization. Decisions that can positively or negatively affect generations. However, the aim at the end is to see to a whole country progress.

Leader, Leadership and Human Resource Management

First thing first, the key factor is understanding who a leader is. Is a person who leads or has authority in decision making.

Human resource management is the practice of handling organization’s or company’s resources, more especially or particularly humans. The management managed by the human resource manager deals with staffing, reward, performance management, office or employee relation, well being of staff, learning and development, knowledge management and human capital management.

With a clear cut goals and vision, decisions must be taken, though collectively, but must be stamped by key decision makers or maker, that is leadership.

Leadership and Human resource management go hand in hand. A leader must have all these qualities of a human resource manager. As he leads he must be able to practice all these. A leader cannot be a good leader without having the human resource capacity. The two move all at once.

Resource Capacity Development

Resource capacity development is the growth and sustenance of an organization’s and individuals’ know how, skills, experience and knowledge towards sets goals.

Resource capacity on its own is the increase in knowledge, know-how and experience of people in and organization.

The act of sustaining the knowledge of the resource in the organization is the development.

 

Aligning Human Resource Capacity Development with Development and Vision of the Country

To align Human Resource Capacity Development with the development and vision of a country, it must be approached from different perspectives or angles. They are; Individual, Organizational, and the Community/ Environment.

Individual

Being the smallest unit of an environment, or an organization, the growth in knowledge, skills, and knowhow of an individual play a role for a country to achieve each of its development and vision. The capacity development of an individual is important.

The leaders or leadership of a country should therefore invest heavily in the capacity development of such individuals. When individuals’ skills are identified they should be assisted to utilize them towards achievement of the country’s set goals.

Other ways of aligning HRCD in individuals to country’s development is through mentorship. Many stopped on the way because they lacked this. Leaders can take it upon themselves to mentor up coming up coming leaders in the office or organization.

Organizational

Leaders can also align HCRD towards the country’s growth and vision by using organizational approach.

Policies and policy formulation by leaders contributes if done rightly. Leaders should form policies that suit their organization and staff. It should be aimed at the country’s growth.

Policy is talked here because of the challenges faced by governance in Africa. Challenges like accountability and transparency. Some challenges could also be geopolitical, economic and cultural. The policies should be made in such a way that none would feel marginalized. Not only policy formulation but the steps involved should be followed. The need to build trust among the stakeholders, using the environments’ state, weighing the magnitude of the policies. All these will help in achieving the development vision of a country.

Environment

The environment houses both the individual and the organization, so attention must be paid to it.

While the policies are being formed, individual’s knowledge and know-how are built; it should be put also in mind the local community and authorities surrounding it. Above all a stable political environment.

All these can set a country towards achieving its goals, but only on one condition- sustainability.

Africa has formed some the best policies in the world, implemented and taken off, but along the line abandoned. These as a result of unstable political environment, lack of continuity because of political differences of one party and another. If only the leaders would accept the policies and other goals set by the opposition, regardless of party, religion, ethnicity and cultural background for the development of the country and people, all HRCD plans align for the growth of our countries and Africa at large will one day come to fruition. – Polycarp   H.  Pharis, Nigeria.

 

What are the social media channels used by your government? Why are they important?

I will address the three levels (instances) of government I am directly affected by, the Municipal, the State and the Federal.

As a starter, it noticeable that the higher you get at the management chain, from Municipal to Federal, more social media channels are used.

In my particular case, in São Paulo (M) – São Paulo (S) – Brazil (F), the observation being made today, September 9^th 2016:

• At Municipal level – 3 social media channels
• At State level – 5 social media channels
• At Federal level – 8 social media channels

The three used at Municipal level are also used at both other levels.

There are some observations to be made from this facts:

• The more people you have to address the more channels you need?
• Higher instances offices need more penetration?
• Higher instances offices have more money to spend on social media channel?
• Lower instances offices are less worried about reaching out to its citizens?
• Does having more social media channels indicate more transparency?
• Does having more social media channels indicate more intention of transparency?
• Higher instances offices have more to report?
• Should there be a unified approach, coordinated amongst all three instances?
• Is there more citizen engagement with more social media channels? What are the statistics? Are there statistics?
• Does social media channels guarantee interaction between government and citizens? Is this enough to guarantee citizen´s involvement?
• Is the government ready to deal with the supposedly enormous amount of incoming messages/queries social media generates? If not, what is the benefit of actually having it?
• Is the information being shared relevant? Is it made available to be easily understood?

I am not able to answer these questions at the present moment, but what I know is that as everything else in life, if you do not have anything to fear, you do not have anything to hide.

Transparency in private organizations have been implemented, and therefore it should also be implemented throughout all public organizations.

Transparency is a two-way street. If you are asking for it, you should also be ready to handle it coming your way.

Transparency at government level will make citizens trust more, it will should make public employees and the governments more accountable for spending the citizen´s tax money.

This will in turn prevent all sorts of claims by BOTH sides. Citizens will not be able to say: “I did not know”, and governments will not be able to say: “I/we didn´t do it”.

Proactive management and engagement from both sides should be envisaged as a good thing, for a society is formed not only by the citizens not employed as government agents/public servants.

Transparency is the easiest way to minimize corruption. Corruption will cannot be eliminated completely if conscientious citizens are not formed. And conscientious citizens will most definitely make good public servants aggregating into a decent government. – Christian Bittencourt, Brazil.

What are the social media channels used by your government? Why are they important?

The world in twenty first century is a global village. People can communicate between each other by many channels, using the newest technical solutions. The Government in every country also should use similar tools to communicate with their citizens. The virtual reality is a basic environment for the people called as generation Z (Gen Z is part of a generation that is global, social, visual and technological).

Polish Government uses social media as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. In numbers it looks like this: at the Facebook there are around 81 thousands of “like” on Twitter 380 thousands of “watching” and 529 “like” and on Instagram there is 1820 of “watching”. Is it huge number or not? If we compare 38 million of habitants with the number of people who uses the social media we can see that this is still not very satisfactory number.

The social media for the Government are really important. They are the collective of online communications channels dedicated to local or nationwide community. Social media allow for input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. The society can understand more from the Government activity and it’s an enduring reality of online existence. The society should know all movements, plans and actions of the Government and should have possibility to share their opinion with the Government.

The social media are also very important for the Government from the strategic point of view. People can share idea and they can create a huge net which will support but also evaluate the work of the Government. People can organize themselves in a big group of the supporters or the opponents of the Government. So in the interest of the Government is to have a good relationship with social media and be open for any kind of cooperation.

In my opinion the low level of using the social media by people is the result that there is no interactive action of these media in cooperation with the Government. Citizens expect quick response times. Most of the people look to social media as a satisfactory outlet for complaining or requesting any service from the Government (or from particular Ministry). Low rates of people who use social media to discuss political or public issue with the Government or other government institutions is as the result of low level of capacity and efficiency of the officials responsible for these media. Potential of social media is still not fully utilized. Social media have great potential to make progress in communication between officials and citizens.

Social media offer new opportunity to reduce distance between government and citizens, more collaborative and responsive way, but to communicate with the Government people still use the traditional way (e-mail or paper letters).

The future of social media is very clear: new platforms of communication, new solution and better quality. The social media should be the one of the most important way to collect information from the society, to understand the needs and behaviours of the citizens and hey should create a feedback in the two-sided relations and help to reduce the political exclusion. – Piotr F. Borowski, Poland.

 

Have you ever made use of any online public service in your country? If yes, explain which ones and how do they work.

Among the several online public services available in India (both at National as well as State level), I would like to highlight the Online Income Tax Filing Service that has been made available to the citizens at the national level through the online portal: http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/

The portal itself declares that “[it] has been developed as a Mission Mode Project under the National E-Governance Plan of the Government. The objective behind the Portal is to provide a single window access to the information and services being provided by the Indian Government for the citizens and other stakeholders.”

As an individual taxpayer, I have been using this portal to file my income tax returns for each financial year. The portal as of today, integrates every citizen to their Unique biometric authentication entity called Aadhar (portal: https://uidai.gov.in/) so that their online filed returns can be verified electronically with ease. For the verification purpose, the facility to use Electronic Verification Codes through Banks is available.

A citizen who is identified as a resident of the country through their unique Permanent Account Number (PAN) can register himself/herself on the portal. During the registration process, the citizen is requested to link his/her email and mobile number with the account for future intimations and verifications. SMS and email notifications are delivered at crucial steps of service including notice reminders if any to ensure transparency. The filing is done for past financial year with respect to the current assessment year. For an individual the process has been significantly made hassle free. The account being linked to the PAN easily links to the tax deducted at source as well as the tax deducted through the employers. All this data is dynamically fetched to calculate the tax payable. Also the account requests information of the bank account to which money can be easily refunded in case the condition arises. This process too is done electronically once the Income Tax Return (ITR) is processed.

The portal is also linked to several associative services such as

• Viewing of tax credit statement (Form 26AS) that contains details of tax deducted on the behalf of the citizen through the deductors, including associated banks.
• Access to previously filed returns and their acknowledgement in digital form.
• Access to demands, returns and rectifications.
• Access to notifications communicated regarding pending actions and requests
• Access to tracking services of filing status and related informatory services.

Apart from individuals, the portal also caters for similar requirements for the following entities:

• HUF (Hindu Undivided Family)
• Other than Individual/HUF
• Chartered Accountant
• e-Return Intermediary
• External Agency
• Tax Deductor & Collector
• Third Party Software Utility Developer

The online portal has a comprehensive user manual set, help documents and FAQs to redress any issues regarding the filing process and recognized procedures. Open lines of multiple toll free numbers are also provided for distributed query redressal. The portal is also up to date regarding any new notifications and schemes the government makes available. – Aparna Khare, India.

1. Case study: Georgia

Introduction:

Georgia with the great and unique success in witnessed the considerable reduction in level of corruption in public service since 2003 Anti-Corruption reforms. Still now, many of other countries are trying hard to get rid of it or least trying to reduce the level of the same. It requires a lot of hard work and commitment from the top to get the desired results. This not only requires support of general public but also the consistency of policies from one to another government. Because it is sequel of policies from one period to another, any nation be it developed or underdeveloped cannot succeed over night from this mess which had been piling up for years. You sleep at night while working to develop paper to reduce the level of corruption and wake up in the morning and start celebrating the success, this is not going to happen in real life. However, the time requires to achieve the desired results can be shorten provided you have team of experts, have obtained support of public, well trained staff, commitment from the top, a very well management group, coordination among all and over all politics-free and no intervention by influential persons. This requires strengthening of the institutions and control of the financial and non-financial resources by competent authority. General public supports you when you deliver the service efficiently and resolve their problems honestly. Georgia did it very well! It developed a culture which resulted in a spill-over effect and made the system corrupt free or at least minimized.

There were eight corners which were point of action and were hit-target for reforms of anticorruption which have been so far witnessed to be successful which comprises creation of the patrol police, strengthening tax collections, cleaning up customs, ensuring reliable power supply, deregulating businesses, making public and civil registries work, rooting out corruption in university entrance examinations, and decentralizing municipal services.

Back in 2003, corruption prevailed in nearly every aspect of life in Georgia and which could have been witnessed in any transactions be it with general public, private or government offices. The curse was prevailing all over the Georgia. It takes a lot of will power to curb the invective corruption from the roots. This is all the game of mind sets when you try to work honestly but you observe all around that rest of others are directly or indirectly part or parcel of corruption then it also alter your perception of the corruption. Here it went wrong and Georgia falls in vicious of never-ending economic distress but with the support of its citizens through austere policies with no gap or leakage from the group.

1. Were they reactive, preventative or proactive anti-corruption reforms?

The anti-corruption reforms were reactive, preventive and proactive in nature. Best possible efforts were made to counter the leakage of corruption from any part of system through usage of three kind of anticorruption reforms.

Initially, reactive approach was followed which triggered investigation of corrupt persons, prosecution and punishment of the same without any prejudice including government officials and several business leaders were taken into account and were tried on charges of corruption causing almost 1000 public figures being charged with offenses.

The preventative measures focused on the comprehensive development of the institutional systems, such as the police force and patrol, customs administration and control, university entrance and examination system, power sector reforms, tax and payment structure systems, simplification of rules and procedures and licensing the businesses. To eliminate or at least reduce the level of corruption several public officials were sacked and new highly trained public officials were appointed on higher salaries to avoid chorus of this malediction.

Once the system was rested on the track, here it comes the long term steps which was important part of strategy to level the Georgia on the track of success. The proactive measures strengthened the public bodies through designing and adopting long-term preventive and sanitary policies which tackled the enabling environment for corruption and improved public trust. This helps in improving the performance of government, witnessed the reduction of corruption from corruption-prone areas in public sector bodies, and extended effective service provision to the citizens. Public enlightenment, citizenry review through research and participation were also considered for recording success in the reforms.

2. Were citizens involved by information, consultation or active participation?

Government tried to involve the citizens through information, consultation and by active participation to increase the acceptability among the masses. It was genuinely accepted and agreed by the panel of experts that to foster the results, citizens are supposed to be part of the strategy implementation. Since, they are real benefactors of the corruption free society as Governments come and go, it is public which has to live and work with the system. Informing public and extending information access to public pertaining to reforms were the key factors which contributed a lot in actually materializing the reforms since reforms are always on paper work at initial level unless they are put in action, with great zeal and zest with particular attention to elimination of unnecessary procedures thus simplifying the processes in which junior level staff were told to share their feedback and suggestions on how to further improve the ways to enhance level of service delivery. The citizens contributed in the 24-hour hotline to submit their complaints or report any offences pertaining to corruption in public bodies. Moreover, Video camera were installed all-over to watch out any offence as proof of violations by any of citizens of Georgia be it public officer, police, high profile figure, business man or even citizen themselves. Government also launched stiffed council of experts which were given complete freedom to work on national program to curb the corruption and devising the policy to deal with it.

It is also important to understand that by getting citizens involved on various levels including information, consultation and participation; what issues could they address? They addressed issues pertaining to capacity building of system and engagement role of actual benefactors.

3. Did they use legal regulation, policy, consultation or operational tools?

Georgia applied and tried almost all corners of the tools and procedures which could have been applied to curb the corruption.

Various Laws and legislations were introduced to put in effect pertaining to corruption for taking actions against offenders. These laws with particular interest in public bodies worked as fueling the engine with strict rules and regulations to eliminate the corruption from the roots.

To establish legislations and code of conduct for criminals, panel of experts on behalf of government studied the application of various international models which could work as ladder to success with which the cultural factors are aligned as well. In continuation of the legal reforms, government also introduced the Tax Amnesty Legislation which permitted taxpayers to assert all unreported assets with the exception of government officials.

With this legislations, it was easy for competent authorities to confiscate the money and property which was illegitimate and generated from illicit sources. These laws closed all the gaps which could have been used for manipulation by criminals, thus it opened the clear doors for zero-tolerance policy and fasten the support from citizens. Citizens were well informed of any changes in legislations, introduction of new reforms and any amendments in the same. It was made obligatory to all concerned public bodies to intimate and get involved the citizens so that there is no communication gap or creates any chaos among masses. To strengthen the accountability framework, civil society organizations were involved in appeal process and any dispute resolutions which resulted in such institutional arrangements. This gives the citizens the room for strengthening their bond with public bodies and chance to participate via consultation and active participation in whole process of decision making forums which was considered as a formal presence of the citizens.

While considering the operational tools various options were considered including publishing adverts and creating toll-free numbers which helped the citizen’s to have heard their voice and gave access to information on reforms activities. On different levels of implementation of reforms workshops were conducted, public hearings were made, opinion polls were obtained and citizens were involved in drafting policies so that various avenues are provided to them for consultation and participation with their presence all over and everywhere in decision making process.

4. What contextual factors did the reformers have to take into account in order to gain the trust of citizens?

It takes a lot of strong political will from the top of government to execute any policy and to take effect any strategy which affects in recourse. Various contextual factors were taken into account so that the trust of citizen is restored and obtained including but not limited to Establish credibility, Launching a frontal approach assault, Attracting and hiring very well trained and new staff, Limiting the role of the state with respect to interactions with citizens, Adopting unconventional methods, Developing a unity of purpose among public officials and citizens to take effect the policy in question, and implement international experience to local condition by using Harness technology and communicating strategically with citizens and public officials. This not only worked effectively but also Reducing Crime by More than 50 Percent, Reducing Armed Robberies by 80 Percent, Forming One of the Least Corrupt Police Forces in Europe, Accountability Framework for Patrol Police, increase in Number and Percentage of Tax Returns Filed Electronically and tax Collections Increased thus witnessing the Increase in trust, Creation of a service culture, Decline in corruption and Sharp reduction in crime rates.

2. Anti-corruption authorities and citizens involvement

The activities to involve citizens that are initiated and managed by anti-corruption authorities differ from those initiated and managed by citizens groups and NGOs in many ways. Normally citizens feel comfortable with dealing in NGOs and Citizen group(CG) particularly in my country since they feel while sharing the information with NGOs and citizen groups is much secured and are comfortable than sharing the same with Anti-corruption authorities fearing they could be counter reactive. The working nature of NGOs with respect to corruption is to increase the awareness by educating the citizens with the help of media, informal channels, websites, and press conferences or by holding workshops etc. whereas role of ACA tend to be more of investigate in nature. The area covered to NGOs and Citizen Group is limited whereas ACAs have broad spectrum to address. NGOs and CGs normally adopt proactive approach whereas ACAs have to adopt combination of preventive, proactive and reactive approaches since they have larger domain and scope. NGOs and CGs focus more on mobilization of resources, providing platform to have their say in public with regard to corruption or offences they might have encountered whereas ACAs tend to work over providing timely response to offences, taking punitive actions to punish offenders, access to information and ensuring transparent process in public offices. It is very trivial situation where NGOs and CGs work closely to monitor and evaluate the performance of ACAs with regard to progress of cases transparently against corruption offenders, following rules and laws w.r.t to anticorruption, work closely with public to identify the causes of corruption, observe the working of public and private bodies including politicians and top business men whereas ACAs are dependent upon the cases being reported only. It is seldom and rarely observed that ACAs to have worked on establishing the causes of corruption and recommending the solutions to government. In my country, I have observed that generally people will never report the cases to ACAs despite being given chance to speak to officials of ACAs they will never complain on grounds they will further be dragged for no good whereas for the sake of information sharing under anonymity condition they share with NGOs and CGs. The main difference between both groups w.r.t Power they can utilize involve power of staging demonstration, media coverage and seeking attention of political figures and support from opposition parties to sitting governments whereas ACAs have only legal power to have heard their say, they are bound by the law to abide and they cannot take any action on mere information rather they are dependent on the evidences. No one can arguably say that either of the party is superior to other in terms of the performance since they all have their role to play to balance the economic and just system.

It is imperative to mention here that the objectives which were pursued including Institutional support, capacity building, Ability of public bodies that processed quick, simple and justifiable access to public services, Protection for citizen opportunities to easily monitor government, Whistle blowing concept, Information sharing to recognize corruption, Public administration capacity, Influence social attitudes. It was landmark achievement which could not have been possible without vision and well-designed mission which further was divided into goals and objectives.

Generally, above objectives results in following strategic goals which are prerequisites to development with respect to their role in:

• Revealing social issues and complications;
• Cementing public views and beliefs against corruption;
• Prosecuting fraud and corruption cases;
• Increasing transparency of procurement processes, development projects, public budgets,
• Influencing laws and policies;
• Realizing financial and welfare gains
• Increasing efficiency of public services

There can be various types of engagement levels ranging from using power, capacity development and using incentives to induce engagement. In power engagement, it starts from micro level but it requires broad base reforms including human rights, free speech and equal justice etc. In capacity development transfer of knowledge is made via trainings thus inducing the engagement leading to social and community development. In Incentive engagement, various benefits are offered to citizens to get them involved. The crux of civic engagement is to involve the citizens for their contribution in development of national strategy which is made for long run and citizens only get involved when they observe the area of their interest and which would they perceive to be beneficial in short as well as long run. Therefore, civic engagement goals should be made to be SMART.

All this can take up form of three engagement levels which include engaged governance i.e. linking social capital to public policy planning, community engagement i.e. involvement of citizens in policy making and civic engagement i.e. identification of issues of public interest.

There can be following techniques for engagement:

Information Sharing Techniques:

The  main  techniques  used  for  information  sharing  are  as follows: Advertising,  Online information, processes,  Briefings,  Education and awareness programmers,  Fact sheets,  Newsletters, Media stories, News conferences, Telephone hotline, Displays, Newspapers inserts, Community fairs or events, Community meetings, Shop fronts, Informal club forums,

Consultation techniques:

There are various consultation techniques including Discussion groups and workshops, One-on-one interviews, Open days, Polls, Road shows, Survey research, Web-based   consultation (interactive   websites,   internet surveys,   discussion   boards   and   list serves,   email   feedback, internet based forums, online chat events)

Active Participation:

Active Participation  is  accomplished  by the means of various planned methods such as Citizens’ juries, Citizens’ panels,  Charrettes  Advisory committees,  Deliberative retreats, Drama workshops,  Search conferences,  Negotiation tables,  Steering committees and  Reference groups

This address following issues:

1. Government or agency issues: Issues related to engagement goals and objectives, target groups, general context, political environment, capacity to influence, legislative environment, policy and planning cycles, resources
2. Community/people issues: Issues related to demographic features, preferences for engagement, previous experiences with government engagement, democratization of society decentralization, rule of law, freedom of expression, capacity for engagement, existing engagement structures (networks, committees, professional, religious, ethnics, sporting,    others).
3. Process issues: They should be based on the following guiding principles: inclusiveness, Reaching Out, Mutual Respect Integrity, Diversity, Adding Value (Capacity Building, Trust, Outcome Sustainability, etc.)

It is important to conceive that who should be involved. For the purpose, there can be various levels of stakeholders depending upon the gravity of the situation, objectives of strategy, cultural issues, norms and social issues. However, generally there can be three kinds of parties to this including government, civil society and private sector. They all can be either targets of strategy, partners in implementation of the strategy or facilitators of the strategy.
Target groups can include Political leaders, Government officials, Public  servants, Parliamentarians, Local authorities, Community leaders (traditional, religious, etc.), Civil society, NGOs/ CBOs and CSOs, Academia, research and training institutes, Private sector, All citizens particularly the poor and disadvantaged ones.

Partners in the strategy can include Governments, NGOs / CSOs /the non-profit sector, trade-unions & Civil Society in general, Academia, Donor community, Multilateral agencies, United Nations system agencies, Regional Commissions, Regional and sub-regional organizations, Research and training institutes, Private sector, People.

So to put in effect, it requires Individual and Systematic capacity to strengthen and reinforce the participation. For the very same reason citizens need easy and equitable access to services, opportunities to easily monitor government and adequate information to recognize corruption. Further, individuals participation they requires very conducive environment to play the field in which is made up of Legal and institutional frameworks, Public administration, Social institutions and importantly Media. This all makes up the framework and network thus inducing the engagement of various stakeholders at large. – Ahmed Awais, Pakistan.

 

Malaysian Government and Social Media

The power of social media denies international boundaries and enables people to communicate in the globalized world. Thanks to the social media, it is now possible for the people living in Asia would know what is currently happening in the Americas. For the people in Malaysia, any breaking news, any new announcement made by the Head of State, would be known in seconds. For the Malaysian people, they welcomed this idea because it would give them first-hand information. For the Malaysian government, this development brings both pros and cons. The cons, due to the uncontrolled flow of information and lack of acceptance from the Malaysian people of the e-government services may lead ineffectiveness on the initiative.

In Malaysia, the state of social media is constantly evolving day by day. The Malaysian government has embraced the social media as part of their initiatives to communicate directly to the people. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are the most popular sites which the Malaysian government is currently embarking on.

In the context of the Malaysian government, the “government’ here refers to the government agencies which would like to interact directly to the people, on their on-going initiatives, services, performance and also getting first hand feedbacks. For an example, Royal Malaysian Police’s (RMP) Facebook account is so popular due to the needs of the people to know the safety level in the country especially knowing the IS threat is overwhelming in South East Asia. RMP has posted a lot useful information during the previous Eid holidays pertaining to road safety, traffic information, and crime rates amongst others. This is not possible many years ago and RMP has to do it by the old fashion way by using the radio, newspapers, mainstream national and private television networks. Kudos to the social media, campaign cost has gone down and the messages is far more reachable.

Meanwhile, politicians use social media as part of their initiatives to gain political mileage.  Even in Malaysia, politicians tend to opt to use social media as well to expand their political influences. As an example, our famous Prime Minister has a lot of social media accounts not relating to only Facebook and Twitter accounts, to reach more people in the country. Politicians gained a lot from these social media platforms in Malaysia due to the country’s penetration rate, any formal functions attended, press statement given by them, would be known in instant of seconds. From there, the politicians could judge their acceptance rate by the likes or feedbacks given by the people.

Getting in depth, the Malaysian government is becoming transparent and embraces social media to tackle these four key areas; government services, politics, economics and security. All these areas is essential to the government to ensure the smooth sailing of the country in becoming a developed nation.

1. Government Services

 According to the Malaysian government official website (www.malaysia.gov.my/onlineservices) there are 1,432 online services currently available to both citizen and non-citizen of Malaysia. These includes tax payments, child adoptions, business premise licenses and many more. By looking at the number of online services alone, it is almost impossible for a stand-alone website to “promote” itself to the people.

2. Politics

The Malaysian political scene has changed significantly over the years with the assistance of social media. Political campaign now could be run 24/7, thanks to Facebook and YouTube. A lot of critics has been given to the current Malaysian Prime Minister for his incompetency in running the Malaysian government and money scandals. His team of so called “cyber-troopers” did a fantastic job making sure that the current on-going issues will not tarnish his political career and image. It is proven on the previous two by-elections where the Coalition won with a big majority when the people expected the Coalition to lose the by elections due to his unpopular image.

3. Economics

Moving forward into more globalize economic world, Malaysia has embrace the social media to brand itself in order to stand out compared to the other countries in South East Asia. As an example, the Ministry of Tourism Malaysia has utilized YouTube to post a lot of interesting places in Malaysia to attract more tourists and investors into the country. In order to that, this require a lot of branding exercises.

4. Security

The Malaysian Armed Forces consists of three main branches; The Malaysian Army, Royal Malaysian Navy and Royal Malaysian Air Force. The security forces played a very critical role in ensuring the safety and stability in the nation. They too have utilized the social media to reach out to the people of Malaysia. The idea of the armed forces to exercise such initiatives are to ensure the people that the armed forces are currently in the state of readiness and will act accordingly against any aggressors. The recent China intervention in the South China Sea has sparked a lot of angst towards the Malaysian people. They too felt insecure on the development and feared a full scale conventional war would broke out. By using the social media especially Facebook and YouTube, it become easier for the armed forces to notify the public while at the same time to ease the tension among Malaysians

To conclude, the social media remains as a mainstay to the Malaysian government. Its uses is significantly recognized to strengthen the country and move this nation forward into more globalize and competitive world. The people of Malaysia should know how to fully use the social media to their advantage so that they will not be left out compared to the other citizens of the neighboring country. – Zarifhadi Bujang, Malaysia.

Legislation in Mongolia regarding the data protection?

After twenty first century Mongolians have begun the process of improving transparency and access to information in the country. As of May 2007, the Cabinet of Ministers discussed a final draft of a Freedom of Information law, but action was postponed on the law to allow it to be discussed along with draft laws on information security and information technology. Mongolian Data protection Law (adopting a Law on Personal Secrecy 1995 and a Law on Personal Secrecy/ Privacy Law) was first approved in 2011 nearly a quarter of a century after data privacy laws first appeared in Asia. Therefore the data privacy sector is kind of new and I do not think it is sufficient safe in Mongolia.

Last few decades technology developments show no sign of slowing. Communications and control technology continues to argument the intelligence of individual humans, collections of humans, and machines. It is called as the Information Age that the Industrial Revolution brought through industrialization, to an economy based on information computerization. This era had brought internet cyber world which is a magnificent tool for the information sharing. It is said that the Internet cannot be totally destroyed in one event, and if large areas are disabled, the information is easily rerouted. In Mongolia, internet users are growing rapidly especially young generation are attracting to social media such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn etc. Because internet is user-friendly to access and almost every single café, restaurant have their own free Wi-Fi in Ulaanbaatar (capital city of Mongolia). However there are many pros in the internet usage, it has followed some issues related to human right, data privacy and information sharing policy. For instance, people share Mongolian movies on the social media without their permission. It is impossible to identify the real name on the social media therefore piracy occurs regularly on social media. Some personal information is considered more sensitive than other, and therefore subject to stricter rules; this includes racial or ethnic origin, political views, religion, and health and sex life. Such information cannot be collected or used at all without individual’s consent.

In the technologized societies, to empower us to control our information and to protect us from abuses, it is essential that data protection laws restrain and shape the activities of companies and governments. Although most people know that they break the data protection law, they do it voluntarily because there is no accurate government controlling system. High-tech criminals have becoming more sophisticated and organized. They can exploit human error and weak security controls to steal trade secrets, payments card data, employee and customer information, and other personal information. Hackers not only robe a company of data, they impugn its integrity, breach its trust with clients and customers; damage its brand and reputation.

To sum up, we need to organize trainings for the people who do not know about data protection law and so that could reduce the number criminality related to data privacy law. On the other hand, government organization should control and identify the criminality accurately. Therefore we could prevent from the increase number of criminality. – Badamsuren Batchuluun, Mongolia.

The SICAD website: a Tunisian portal for online public services.

The site SICAD allows users to:

• learn about the news of the Tunisian administration and consult its notices and its news releases.
• Be redirected to all sites of all Tunisian ministries and public institutions.
• Know the legal and regulatory bases on the distance system of the administrative communication and information SICAD.
• View all the public services available to users including:

1. the list of public services available online whose total number amounted to 41services (dated June 30, 2016).
2. The administrative services provided by the Tunisian administration: there are now up to 942 administrative services (dated June 30, 2016).

The SICAD displayed for each administrative service:

1. Its terms of obtaining.
2. The required document list.

• Steps, interveners and time or delays.

1. Folders repositories and places for obtaining the administrative service.
2. Legislative references and regulations that govern it.
3. All terms of reference relating to the exercise of certain economic and commercial activities.

For each term of reference, the site displays the name of the competent authority for validation, a link to download it, and a redirection link to website of this competent authority.

1. The list and the download links of all official printed forms of the Tunisian government available to citizens and businesses.
2. The list of offices of the relationship with citizens in ministries, governorates, public institutions and public companies and the redirect links to the supervisory authority over the operation of each office.

Users exploit the various sections of this site through an advanced search module based on filtering. Thus, each user can enter a keyword and refine the search with filters that allows him to choose: the department, the agency, the sector and the area of activity. The results appear at the bottom of the advanced research module alphabetically or by use date and in the form of a hyperlink that allows user redirection to the public service provider website.

Figure 2: the filtering module in advanced research

Users can also interact with the administrators of the website by sending various comments or requests relating to the form or purpose of the administrative service. A processing procedure of these comments or requests triggers in the background with the concerned administrations. The website will send the response to the user’s email address when ready.

Figure 3: section for user feedback

Finally, it remains to say that online public services are developing in Tunisia with a very slow pace as considered by citizens and businesses. The Tunisian state must take bold steps to develop an effective and sustainable e-government that can satisfy all the public action beneficiaries. – Hatem Haddad, Tunisia.