How Gorbachev could have created openness and transparency using modern information systems

Hello and welcome back to the blog!

Gorbachev’s policy of Glasnost has been mentioned in a few of the blogs that have been uploaded prior to this one and this one will deal with it again. Just as a quick refresher, Glasnost was Gorbachev's push to increase openness and transparency in government institutions and the activities of the USSR as a whole (Hewett & Winston, 1991). In a way it was Gorbachev acknowledging that their system had problems and that they would discuss these problems in a more public way in the search of solutions. The movement permitted the criticism of government officials and allowed freer dissemination of news and information. This type of thinking was in stark contrast to the way the USSR had traditionally been run, in secrecy and weakness kept very much out of the public eye. Ultimately, Gorbachev's reforms were somewhat successful in that they made the USSR a more open country, but they were at least partially responsible for the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Mikhael Gorbachev has always been keen to reduce the levels of corruption in Russia, which could be seen clearly in his policies but also in his remarks about Putin’s Russia. In 2010 he came out publicly in objection to Putin’s leadership of the country. He wrote in the Novaya Gazeta paper that “Starting roughly in 2005/2006 the government took decisions that did not create the conditions to move forward but made it more difficult, practically impossible, even to raise acute issues." He went on to criticize the appalling corruption and arrogant inward looking elite as being particularly worrisome (Osborn, 2010). In this blog I will explore how modern technologies and information systems are being used to fight corruption and promote a culture of transparency as was in line with glasnost.

Big Data and Data mining

Technology is being used by both corporations and governments to create transparency by increasing automation, which reduces opportunity for fraud, and accuracy across processes. The UN states that more accessible and high quality data will result in greater accountability and there have been moves to achieve this which involves the use of advanced networks, big data and improved technological infrastructure (Data Revolution Group, 2014). In the past large amounts of data were a problem and was borderline impossible to get through it all, but with the advent of machine learning and big data capabilities in recent years, governments can now wade through extensive datasets and the algorithms will highlight areas that could be fraudulent. Fraud analytics can now detect patterns that are suspicious that would’ve been missed in the past and the relevant authorities can investigate further resulting in greater compliance.

E-procurement

Procurement is the process of finding and agreeing to terms with an external source for goods or services. This is often done through a tendering or competitive bidding process. These processes are prone to corruption, whereby the government department responsible for the procurement for a good or service pick the best paying briber, instead of the best price-quality combination (Soreide, 2002). This results in sub-standard goods and service being provided to the citizens which was and still very much is still the case in modern-day Russia. For example, Companies linked to Russian billionaires Arkady Rotenberg, a childhood friend of Putin, and Gennady Timchenko were given over £3.6 billion in contracts in the months following the west imposing sanctions on the two men. The US treasury estimates that the Rotenburg brothers won contracts worth over $7 billion for the Sochi Olympics. (Hirst, 2014)

E-Procurement fosters new digital technologies to replace paper-based procurement processes which looks after the whole procurement process from contract planning to procurement management which improves efficiency and reduces costs. The digitization of all the records ensures better visibility for all parties interested in the process including government watchdogs. The success of a contract can also be built into the tool which allows vendors to build up a strong reputation for delivering quality work on budget. As well as highlighting quality vendors, the funneling of contracts to substandard or overpriced vendors would be easily spotted through data analysis (Wrage, 2017). Even though these technologies exist there is still widespread corruption in the procurement process of many governments, including Russia. This type of tool only has value in the hands of someone who is willing to use it, which I believe Gorbachev was, unlike Putin, as it would’ve facilitated his goals of increasing transparency.

Gennady Timchenko and Arkady Rotenberg

There are more technological innovations that have seen success in reducing corruption that may have helped Gorbachev during his reign of power. One such advancement is ipaidabribe.com which allows citizens in the Bangalore region of India to report any bribes they had to pay, noting the time, place and amount of the bribe. (Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, 2013)The system has not had over 190,000 reports of bribes which have totaled 34.54B rupees and more of these reports have led to arrests and convictions, taking corrupt government staff off the streets. Another website that helps governments improve their transparency is openspending.org which promotes open knowledge and data regarding government budgets through the mapping of money flows. The aim of the program is to track every government and corporate financial transaction across the world and present it in a way that is easily digestible to the common citizen.

E taxation

This is another advance that helps reduce tax fraud from both ends. In corrupt countries it is not unusual for corporations to receive extortionate demands from tax collectors who are either in the pocket of their competitors or who see it as an opportunity for significant personal gain. On the opposite end to this sometime corrupt official will reduce the tax bill of companies who will bribe them. E-taxation automates much of the tax process and reduces the need for any personal interaction with tax officials, thus reducing the number of encounters where bribes can be made or requested. (Wrage, 2017)

It is clear that there are many technologies that can be used to foster openness and transparency between a government and its people. Despite these advances it remains to be seen whether having these technologies at his disposal would've resulted in a significantly more open USSR as much of the USSR at that time had corruption instilled in its fibres. Personally, I think if Gorbachev had sought to publicly stop the corruption in the country he may have been killed or ousted by those who stood to lose a lot of wealth. As well as this I do not think Gorbachev could have achieved Glasnost without the dissolution of the USSR as the key to the USSRs power laid in the fact that people could not speak out against it without fear of retribution.

Hope you enjoyed the blog!

Bibliography

1. Anti-Corruption Resource Centre, 2013. Technological innovations to identify and reduce corruption , s.l.: Anti-Corruption Resource Centre.

2. Data Revolution Group, 2014. A world that counts: Mobilising the data revolution for sustainable development, s.l.: Independant Expert Advisory Group .

3. Hewett, E. & Winston, V., 1991. Milestones in Glasnost and Perestroika. 1 ed. Washington: Brookings Institute.

4. Hirst, T., 2014. Putin Handed Over $8 Billion In Contracts To His Russian Oligarch Friends. [Online] Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-gives-8-billion-contracts-to-sanctioned-russian-oligarch-friends-2014-12?r=US&IR=T [Accessed 05 02 2020].

5. Osborn, A., 2010. Gorbachev warns corruption is undermining democracy in Russia. [Online] Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/8194938/Gorbachev-warns-corruption-is-undermining-democracy-in-Russia.html [Accessed 05 02 2020].

6. Soreide, T., 2002. Corruption in public procurement, Bergen, Norway: CHR Michelsen Institute.

7. Wrage, A., 2017. Government Technology Reduces Corruption. [Online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexandrawrage/2017/04/13/government-technology-reduces-corruption/#786de3162f9 [Accessed 05 02 2020].