“Hello, I’d Like to Report a Bribe”
By Jared Nielsen, Marketing —
People are tired of dealing with corruption. In America, we hear stories of large scale corruption and are familiar with corporate fraud; however, we do not deal with much of the day-to-day government corruption many other people face. Small-scale bribes are practically required to get things done in many countries, and the people are not happy. Thanks to the Internet, frustrated citizens are finding a way to speak out.
Bribe Reporting Websites
New websites such as IPaidABribe.com and other copycat websites are places for everyday people to report everyday small-scale corruption. There are tens of thousands of reports on this particular website, and this website is solely dedicated to bribes taking place in India. Other websites do the same thing for people in nearby countries—they give exploited individuals a chance to be heard. Only one problem remains. How do you create actual, lasting changes with only a few thousand reports of small-scale bribery? It will require work from all sides—the websites, the people, and the government working together to come up with a solution.
How to Bring About Change?
First, the websites need to make sure that the information they collect is reliable and usable. Then they need to be willing and able to see the problem through to the end. A great example of a company taking a full approach to the problem is Not in My Country, based in Uganda and Kenya. As long as individuals are willing to give adequate details of the issue, the site assures them protection and guidance through the legal proceedings necessary to take care of the problem. This protects the vulnerable whistleblowers from powerful enemies.
The governments, on the other hand, need to show the people that they genuinely care about the problem. They show this as they consider the reports given by crowd-sourcing platforms and follow through by actually eliminating the problem. Such actions demonstrate to the citizens that their rights and voices are valued. If the governments don’t help fix the problem, they could find themselves elected out of office.
Show Commitment
One way the government could show that they are committed to solving this problem is to add a lie detection technology such as EyeDetect® to their corruption-fighting arsenal. What a potent combination these forces could be together! As people report corruption by specific individuals, the government notes these complaints. After a certain threshold of complaints (to prevent one disgruntled person from causing unnecessary hassle), the government would automatically bring in officials to be put through an EyeDetect test to conclude for sure if they were demanding bribes. With these conclusive results, the government could feel safe implementing disciplinary action. We have the technology. If we truly care, we can fix this problem.