IT for Corruption

Very often I get a letter, mostly from IT vendors, writing about some big or
small irregularity going on as far as procurement for various e-governance
projects are concerned. These are about hardware, software, and in many cases,
consulting.

For instance, the police department of a west Indian statethat in the recent
years has seen some of the biggest terrorist attacksis allegedly buying
fingerprint software at a huge amount of money with functionalities that are not
really needed or usable in the initial phase. The police department of another
north Indian state is accused of spending on a fingerprint software that is not
able to connect with the FBI and Interpol, or even with other state police
forces. What use will such a solution have when fingerprints need to be
instantly identified and cross checked.

In another case, the municipal corporation of a well known city had sometime
back bought unlimited software rights for some citizen service applications from
a leading vendor. Despite that, the corporation is allegedly spending
significant amount of money to buy similar software from other vendors.
Similarly, one municipal corporation of another city is charged with getting a
third party vendor for delivering land mutation and registration services to
citizens, when it could have actually got the service free from NIC.

Obviously, it will take a long time to prove or disprove these charges. I
also know that many a times these charges are baseless and flimsy and more of
delay tactics. But if they are true, then the damage will be big and long term.
But in the interest of all stakeholdersthe various governments, citizens, and
the industryit is critical that more stringent processes be put in place, and
more effective monitoring systems track these projects.

Transparency should be the starting point. While one of the big objectives of
e-governance is to bring in transparency, it appears that in most of the IT
related purchase decisions (like any other purchase in governments today) there
is no transparency at all.

I have observed that many of these complaint letters are coming from small
vendors. They also seem to suggest that the governments procurement policies
are very unfriendly for small players, even if they have a good product or idea.
Information technology is very different from buying big machines or getting a
dispensary constructed. In IT, the same work can be done by a different and may
be a much cheaper solution, which often comes from small players.

There are also quite a few cases which come to light about blacklisted
companies and people, who manage to win new orders in the garb of a new player.
This must not be allowed at any cost. The wish list can be long, but
e-governance is critical for our countrys survival.

Ibrahim Ahmad

ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in