Bibek Debroy, Bjorn Lomborg, Aditya Sinha
Corruption has been a widespread issue for governments around the world. This is an issue that siphons billions of dollars out of the global economy. This slows down the rate of economic growth. People’s trust in administration decreases, poverty also increases. There have been many initiatives at the global level to eliminate corruption. Many heads of state also made promises to end it. Still this problem is increasing, but there is a hope here. A new research has revealed a cheap way to reduce it. If adopted, a country can save crores or even billions of dollars.
promises not being fulfilled
There is no doubt that corruption is a difficult challenge. On the one hand, the income of the officer who takes bribe increases. On the other hand, the one who gives bribe gets things done faster or gets better service. Leaders around the world have pledged to substantially reduce corruption between 2016 and 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The initiatives taken under these goals have been approved by many countries. The sad thing is that these leaders are not fulfilling their promises to reduce corruption. Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index shows that globally there has been little to no progress in the last 10 years. This index was made in 2012. As much corruption was there in the world then, it will remain the same in 2021 also. If this condition continues, then corruption will not end till 2030 or at any time in the future.
People are not unaware that corruption comes in many forms. One of these happens when the government buys something. Governments around the world make $11 trillion purchases, which is 12 percent of global GDP. Surprisingly, in countries where 50 percent of the world’s least affluent population lives, 50 percent of the total expenditure of the governments goes to this item.
The government should take the help of internet to improve the procurement process and reduce corruption. If this entire system is made online, transparency will increase and corruption will decrease. When the buying process is online, more companies are aware of it. So the government gets more bids and more money is not wasted.
This can be understood from the experience of India. Here in 2016, the government started the e-Market Place (GeM). This online platform was brought so that through this the government and public sector companies can purchase essential goods and services. GeM intends to enhance transparency and make the government procurement process inclusive. You will be surprised to know that by February 1, 2023, the transaction (gross merchandise value) on GeM had reached Rs 1.5 lakh crore in FY 2023, which is amazing. On the other hand, if we see since its launch, the transactions done on this platform have reached Rs 3 lakh crore. More than 13 crore deals have been done through this platform, in which 66 thousand government institutions have made purchases and 58 lakh vendors and service companies have participated. There are 11,000 categories of items on GeM, including 2.9 million items. In case of services, this number is 270, through which 2.5 lakh services are provided.
Despite India’s stupendous success, 40 per cent of lower and lower-middle-class countries have not made government procurement online. The researchers tracked the costs and benefits of 11 government online shopping initiatives in countries of varying status. This included low-income countries such as Bangladesh and Rwanda, as well as middle-income countries such as Ukraine and Tunisia, as well as high-income countries such as Italy and South Korea.
Research also shows that it takes years to plan an online shopping setup. It takes about 1.5 years to design and manufacture and 2.5 years to start the pilot project. At the same time, in the first 12 years, it costs only $ 16.7 million. What is the size of a country, it does not affect the cost. That is, the expenditure on this is less and the benefits are innumerable.
In this system there is better monitoring of the whole process. Corruption is easily detected and the matter goes to the concerned authorities for further action. There is also a big thing that the online process leads to faster purchases from the government. In South Korea, where the time taken to complete a bid has come down from 30 hours to 2 hours, in Argentina it has come down to 11 days. One advantage of this is also the reduction in the expenditure on procurement by the government. Our research shows that this saves the government about 6.75 per cent. When billions of dollars are being spent on this item, it can be easily understood how big this savings will be.
Even though it may not be possible to eliminate corruption completely from the world, but it can be reduced to a great extent by making the procurement process of governments online. The great thing is that it will not cost much.
Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own.
Source: blogs.navbharattimes.indiatimes.com
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