Corruption: The Benefits of Using Digital Technologies

Today, information technology and software products have become an integral part of our daily lives. In turn, digitalization is becoming an integral part of the process of modernizing governments around the world, increasing their efficiency and providing public services.
Information technology is also seen as a key tool for reducing corruption by increasing transparency, providing data for public control, automating business processes and limiting the discretionary powers of officials and citizens when interacting with “intermediaries” when accessing services.

We see that digital technologies and innovative approaches have played an important role in the best practices of many countries, such as Norway, Finland and Singapore, in the fight against corruption. Transparency of processes can be increased through the digitalization of public services.
For example, the implementation of processes such as public procurement, issuing licenses and obtaining permits through online platforms allows for control over all stages of these processes and reduces the risk of corruption. Public disclosure of information on the state budget, procurement and projects through open data portals will strengthen public control and help identify cases of corruption. Large-scale work is being carried out to digitalize public services, create open data portals, and develop an e-government system. Let's take just one example: public procurement. After the introduction of an electronic public procurement system in Uzbekistan, this system increased the transparency of procurement processes and reduced the risk of corruption.
In particular, holding all tenders online made it possible to limit the "interested" interference of officials. As a result, the number of tender participants increased significantly. This increased competition and led to a decrease in purchase prices. In some tenders, prices were reduced to 15-20%. Ultimately, significant budget savings were achieved.
On March 5 of this year, at a meeting of the National Anti-Corruption Council, the President paid special attention to the results achieved in reducing the level of corruption through the digitalization of industries in our country, and future priorities in this direction. The head of our state noted that in order to eradicate corruption, special attention is paid, first of all, to reducing the human factor and paperwork, and in this regard, special attention is paid to the use of digital technologies in all areas. Separately, an order was given to launch an online platform that will allow citizens to receive answers online on issues such as water supply, gas, electricity connections, subsidies, pensions and financial assistance without visiting offices, but simply answering people's questions using mobile phones based on artificial intelligence.
It should be especially noted that today in our country, digitalization is considered an important factor in the fight against corruption, and significant progress is being made in this direction. However, for digitalization to be fully effective, other factors are also important, such as the rule of law, public oversight and political will to fight corruption.
The development of artificial intelligence, big data analytics and blockchain technologies creates new opportunities to detect and prevent corruption. Full digitalization of public services, widespread dissemination of open data and increased public control will help minimize the risk of corruption. This, in turn, will increase trust in government institutions, improve the investment climate and serve to strengthen the principles of justice in society. Muhammadali Ubaidullaev, Head of the Namangan regional branch of the Center for Analysis of Democratic Processes.