Developing an Integrated Electronic Civil Petition and Corruption Reporting Platform (TN0002)

This platform will contribute to fight corruption and promote citizen participation. Using multiple channels (Website, Call center, SMS, direct visits of citizens,...), the system will be a channel to receive citizens’ complaints and report corruption cases. These complaints will be dispatched to different public structures at the central, regional and local levels. The system ensures the follow up of the petition throughout the treatment process.
The system will allow the publication of data on received and treated petitions by category of the petition and by field. It will allow citizens to follow-up their petition treatment process and it will be designed based on a participatory approach involving civil society representatives.
This system will be implemented in phases to cover all public structures. The first one concerns number of pilot ministries that will be latterly determined.

2: Electronic civil petition and corruption reporting platform

Commitment Text: This platform will contribute to fight corruption and promote citizen participation. Using multiple channels (Website, Call center, SMS, direct visits of citizens), the system will be a gate to receive citizens’ complaints and report corruption cases. These complaints will be dispatched to different public structures at the central, regional and local levels. The system ensures the follow up of the petition throughout the treatment process.

The system will allow the publication of data on received and treated petitions by category of the petition and by field. It will allow citizens to follow-up their petition treatment process and it will be designed based on a participatory approach involving civil society representatives.

This system will be implemented in phases to cover all public structures. The first one concerns number of pilot ministries that will be determined later.

Responsible Institution(s): The Secretariat of State in Charge of Governance and Civil Service (The Government Unit and the Central Bureau of Relationship with Citizens).

Supporting Institution(s): The Committee of Governance and Corruption Fight, all involved ministries.

Start Date: September 2014 End Date: June 2016

Commitment aim

This commitment aimed to create a platform that citizens could use to report corruption cases. The platform was meant to combine several channels of reporting — SMS, a website, a call center, and direct contact with a public institution. In 2014, when this commitment was included in the action plan, the only ways to report corruption was to file a case with the local police office, or report it on the platforms of specific ministeries, such as the Transport Ministry.^{[Note 10: The Ministry of Transport’s website for reporting corruption is http://bit.ly/2roVg9Z.]} Moreover, citizens reporting corruption cases to the police never learned how they were processed.

Status

Midterm: Limited

According to the government’s self-assessment report, a law was being drafted on civil petitions under the supervision of a central department at the Presidency of the Government and the Central Bureau of Relationships with Citizens. However, no budget was approved for the implementation of the civil petition system. South Korea’s International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) pledged to fund the project, but made little progress at the midterm. The government neither published the technical requirements of the platform, nor shared information about the details of its cooperation with KOICA.

End of term: Limited

The cooperation agreement was signed, and the design brief for the platform finalised at the end of 2016. KOICA provided US$5 million for the first phase of the technical implementation of the platform. This phase began in February 2016, while the technical implementation was scheduled to begin in January 2017. The completion of the second and final phase is planned for the end of 2017. The government’s self-assessment report states that the platform still needs to be developed, and personnel need to be trained.

Ten government agencies are planning to use the platform once it is launched and ready for use. These include the Central Bureau of Relationship with Citizens, the National Anti-Corruption Committee, and the pilot Bureaus of Relationship with Citizens at ministries, governorates, and state-owned companies.

Did it open government?

Civic participation: Did not change

Public accountability: Did not change

Had it been implemented, this commitment would have had a major impact on fighting corruption. The platform would create multiple channels for citizens to report cases of corruption, and process them via the respective government departments. If the public administration were bound to provide feedback on corruption-related cases, it would enable a culture of public accountability within government, and help build public trust.

By the end of the action plan, however, the platform had not been developed. As a result, the commitment did not improve civic participation or enhance public accountability. The Tunisian NGO, Al Bawsala, and other representatives from civil society met with Oubaid Briki, the new Minister of Public Service and Governance. Al Bawsala reported that the minister is willing to advance the implementation of the commitment, including the electronic civil petition and corruption reporting platform. However, progress has reportedly stalled because of resistance from some directors in the ministry.^{[Note 11: Al Bawsala’s interview with the IRM researcher, 1 February 2017.]}

Civil society representatives believe the introduction of the electronic civil petition system and corruption reporting platform is a priority.^{[Note 12: Ibid.]} According to members of the NGO, e-Gov Society, it is very important to expedite the complaints system, and have it independently managed and operated by experts.

Carried forward?

This commitment was carried forward to the second action plan (commitment 10). The language of the new commitment is similar, except it explicity states that the platform will be designed with the participation of civil society representatives. The IRM researcher recommends accelerating work on the platform, keeping the following in mind:

•       A more proactive promotion effort is needed to engage the public in the anti-corruption platform, since its usability would depend on citizens’ awareness of the tool.

•       Track progress on implementation of the commitment. Its results must be measured against specific success indicators, such as the number of users of the reporting platform, the percentage of reported and resolved cases, and the average time for processing a case and its results.