OUTSIDE OF Transparency International's immediate sphere of influence, civil-society groups have not been any less spirited in combating corruption in cyberspace. In Latin America, for instance, the Respondanet, a bilingual website sponsored by the U.S. Aid for International Development (USAID), serves up documents, surveys, and reports on accountability and anti-corruption initiatives in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Launched in 1998, Respondanet also hosts Anticorrupción Sin Fronteras (Anti-corruption Without Borders), a listserv forum that allows civil-society groups to exchange information and ideas on anti-corruption activities.

Other Latin American countries like the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Argentina have also began to publish on the Web the entry and exit assets of public officials. The Dominican Alliance Against Corruption even publishes officials' bank account numbers, national identification numbers, and home addresses on its site to help citizens detect possible fraudulent acts committed while in office. In Peru, a nongovernment anti-corruption initiative is spearheaded by Sincorrupción.

Another Latin American independent organization, Probidad (Probity), is another pioneer in the use of Internet resources for anti-corruption projects in the region. As El Salvador's oldest nongovernment watchdog, it has employed email to disseminate anti-corruption information to local and international organizations. In addition, Probidad, which is actually the originator of the Anti-corruption Without Borders mailing list, administers a dynamic and interactive listserv of 500 Latin American journalists for the regional Periodistas Frente a la Corrupción (Journalists Against Corruption) project. The list is lauded for providing journalists with a wealth of resources and services that help enhance media investigations of corruption and protect journalists facing threats for their coverage of corruption, among others.

Each month, Probidad also highlights a web site exemplifying a "best-practice" use of the Internet to expose or curb corrupt acts. It has since compiled a vast compendium of online anti-corruption initiatives in Latin America and elsewhere.

Over at the vast African continent—where the TI's latest Corruption Perception Index indicate high levels of perceived corruption in public administration and governance in many countries—Kenya's Information Technology Standards Association (ITSA) also uses the Internet and email as channels for reporting corrupt practices. Its pilot project on Electronic Graft Management (EGM) provides the public with an online site where they can fill up forms for their complaints, which are then forwarded to the Kenya Anti-Corruption Authority for action.

Other commendable efforts include the Institute for Democracy in South Africa's (Idasa) Open Democracy Advice Center (ODAC) and the Rhodes University's Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM). ODAC monitors government compliance with the Access to Information Act and dispenses advice and assistance to potential whistleblowers. PSAM compiles and conducts investigations into reports of misconduct, corruption, and maladministration by South African public officials. Findings of the probe are subsequently published online.

Central and Eastern Europe are similarly abuzz with corruption watches gone cyber. The Anti-Corruption Network's website is the main hub for discussion and dialogue among anti-corruption groups in both the public and private realms. It is also the repository of corruption-related resources, such as research, surveys, and reports.

Similar independent initiatives are being pushed in each country. In Bulgaria, a public-private partnership fighting corruption has given birth to Coalition 2000. Its anti-corruption action plan calls for implementing an awareness campaign and monitoring system that are primarily serviced by its bilingual website. An electronic notification system distributes data about the coalition's activities to journalists across the country.

In the Slovak Republic, the nonprofit E-Society has initiated a project allowing Internet users to monitor and to control the work of state authorities through the creation of an online information server. In Romania, anti-corruption civil-society groups and IT professionals and enthusiasts have jointly established the Internet Communications and Resource Center for Nongovernmental Organizations (CRCI-ONG). The project provides Internet access, Internet orientation courses for NGOs, web hosting on its server, as well as technical support for NGOs wanting to go online.

Back here in Asia, civic groups in South Korea took to the Internet in April 2000 to influence the outcome of the National Assembly elections. Some 470 groups formed the Citizens' Alliance for the 2000 General Elections (CAGE) to launch rejection campaigns through email and the Web against "unfit" candidates with past involvements in corruption scandals and resistance to democratic and anti-corruption reforms. The outcome of the elections was considered a landmark in civic empowerment as voters junked 70 percent of blacklisted candidates.

In the Philippines, the USAID-funded Transparent Accountable Governance project, through its website, has integrated survey research, investigative reports, case studies, and discussions to raise public awareness and better understanding of the extent and impact of corruption in Philippine society.

International development organizations, lending and research institutions also continue to lend theoretical, financial, and technical support for global anti-corruption programs. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)'s Anti-Corruption Division, for instance, manages AnCOrR Web, the Anti-Corruption Ring Online to supplement efforts to harmonize legal instruments concerning bribery of foreign officials in international business transactions. The information center offers more than 5,000 selected references to books, journals, papers, reports, and other documents, as well as a large number of downloadable resources on corruption and bribery.

Significantly, the United Nations Development Program has granted the seed capital for the initial operations of the new Partnership for Transparency Fund (PTF). The organization gives grants of up to US$20,000 for civil society-initiated anti-corruption programs. Information on application procedures and types of funded activities can be found on its website.

Since adopting a comprehensive anti-corruption policy framework in 1997, the World Bank has assisted governments requesting help in fighting corruption. The Bank's Anti-Corruption Knowledge Center offers resources on corruption (like a downloadable Internet handbook for African journalists to enhance research and reporting on corruption), strategies to reduce corruption, and regular updates on its anti-corruption activities.

Ironically though, its Development Gateway Internet site project became the subject of a corruption complaint filed by prominent Uruguayan civil society representatives last July. Critics alleged the misuse of Bank funds for a website whose operation was intended more for public relations than developing an independent Internet portal. The complaint further pointed to donors being misled to grant funds to the foundation supposed to manage the site but was in all likelihood a mere appendix of the Bank.

THOUGH NOT necessarily thought of as being inherently good or evil, technology does facilitate corruption as in the case of the Internet's use in effecting money transfers to easily hide laundered funds. But technology can also prevent corruption by promoting transparency and accountability, good governance principles that some reformist governments have started to operationalize online.

The Mexican government, for instance, has transferred the processing of government contracts online to prevent bribery, which accounted for $52 billion in lost revenues last year. In Argentina, a new law mandates its 23 provincial governments to post all official transactions-budget, contracts, payroll information-on the Net for public scrutiny. Chile has also begun to modernize its tax-collection system in response to pervasive corporate tax evasion by requiring its citizens to file their taxes online.

In an extreme display of transparency, the finance minister of Latvia went to the extent of setting up a Web camera in his office to allow citizens to view his activities.

The metropolitan government of Seoul in South Korea recently developed an online system to review permit applications and decisions on such applications in an effort to rid the city of its longstanding reputation as a hotbed of corruption. The Web-based system, called Online Procedures Enhancement for Civil Applications or OPEN, enables citizens to monitor in real-time details of the handling their applications, the procedures involved in their approval and review, and when the permits are expected to be awarded. The application is being touted as Seoul's next most important export.

Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption is one super agency in a league entirely its own, combating corruption on three fronts: investigation, prevention, and popular participation. Its investigations are backed by a computer forensics and information technology research section that provides expertise in the search, recovery, and analysis of computer evidence.

Its website is known for its rich content and functional tools like corruption-prevention materials in the following categories: Public Sector, Business Sector, Youth and Moral Education, Building Management, Mainland Liaison, and Elections, all available for downloading as pdf (Adobe portable document format) files. Any private company, government agency or organization wanting to draw up corruption prevention measures and seminars—for free—can just visit the ICAC site, fill in a service request form, and await the prompt action of the respective department officers' concerned.

Many governments have already embarked on putting up or improving their information technology infrastructure as a way of fostering transparency in governance, although few have managed to go beyond having local area networks (LAN) or websites. Still, the situation is not too bad, as the information governments provide on the Internet facilitates citizens' access to public documents—a right authorities otherwise deny summarily in a nontechnology-enhanced environment.

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