The Effects of ICT Pervasiveness on Administrative Corruption

The problem of corruption has been universally acknowledged as a drain on a country's developmental efforts. Anticorruption reform hitherto has focused on political corruption. Administrative corruption which citizens have to contend with on a daily basis is only just beginning to attract attention. There have been various strategies, intensifying only recently, to stem the problem. Unfortunately in most of these countries corruption has remained stable or deteriorated. Our research characterized corruption as a contracting problem between citizens (principals) and the bureaucrats (agents). Using transaction cost economics we hypothesized that technology is necessary in dealing with the problem of coordination and transparency and ensuring arms-length relationships which reduces opportunities for corrupt behavior between the two groups of actors. We used a sample of 46 countries from a geographical region deemed to be battling the scourge of corruption as indicated by Transparency International's CPI rankings. The results of our model using partial least square modeling suggest that indeed Information and Communication pervasiveness in a country determines the level of corruption in a country. Technology achieves this by promoting transparency which is necessary in any anticorruption endeavor.