Integrity and Digitization
Since coming to office one of the major priorities of this administration remains the digitization of the Barbadian public sector. Most recently, this was evidenced by Barbados’ Smart Week Conference and the government’s pending cooperation agreement with Estonia’s e-governance academy. Both the conference and the academy seek to promote and assists with the technological transformation of the public sector which can also be a useful approach to improve integrity.
Digitization and improving integrity
Enhancing the integrity framework through digitization is increasingly relevant as it can facilitate a series of modern and effective legislative and policy initiatives to combat corruption. One such initiative is an open data policy. Open data policies establish the technical and legal requirements that permit access to government information that may have traditionally been difficult to access. This information would be provided through an online portal where it can be freely used, reused, and redistributed by anyone, anytime and anywhere. The principle behind an open data policy is that all government information that does not contain confidential personal information, threaten national security or allow for anti-competitive business behaviour should automatically be made public.
Digitization can also improve public sector integrity through modernizing Barbados’ procurement system by transitioning to an e-procurement platform. This transition would allow various aspects of the procurement process including tendering, bidding, reviewing and monitoring, to be conducted through an internet platform which promotes procurement standardization and transparency.
Improving transparency
Combined, both open data and e-procurement legislation would permit a greater degree of accessibility and transparency that can strengthen public sector integrity. This access proves particularly advantageous as it grants the public, the media and civil society the ability to better scrutinize public officials’ decisions as well as frustrate attempts to conceal wrongdoings. Therefore, these provisions enable various stakeholders to become integrity watchdogs and supplement the efforts of anti-corruption institutions.
Enforcement still necessary
Yet, improving integrity through digitization must be buttressed by actions of reporting and enforcement that can hold individuals liable in instances of wrongdoing. This will require the establishment of an anti-corruption commission that has adequate financial and human resources as well as a robust legislative regime that can complement its anti-corruption efforts. Such a commission must be well equipped with the administrative abilities to receive reports of potential wrongdoings and the powers to conduct investigations into these allegations and make prosecutorial referrals to hold offenders accountable.
Ultimately, modernizing the island’s public service through digitization provides an opportunity to enhance public sector integrity. The onus is now on this administration to maximize on its fortunes by addressing two problems with a single action. Several administrations dating to the 20th century have vowed to combat public sector corruption, yet, it may, in fact, be 21st-century modalities that can finally make these assurances a reality.