# Anti-corruption Efforts in National ICT Policies

Cecilia Strand, Mathias Hatakka

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Cecilia Strand, Mathias Hatakka. Anti-corruption Efforts in National ICT Policies. 15th International Conference on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries (ICT4D), May 2019, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. pp.520-531, 10.1007/978-3-030-18400-1_43. http-02285310

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# Anti-corruption efforts in national ICT policies
## -A study of policy environments in Sub-Saharan Africa

Cecilia Strand<fnref n="1" /> [0000-0003-1194-8983]and Mathias Hatakka<fnref n="2" /> [0000-0003-1076-3442]

cecilia.strand@im.uu.se, mathias.hatakka@oru.se

**Abstract.** Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa suffer from endemic corruption, which disrupts development efforts. Although ICTs is no magic wand, several studies indicate that ICT can serve as an important tool for combatting corruption by increasing transparency, and enable citizens to hold public officials accountable. Anti-corruption efforts are however dependent on strong political will and rule of law to be successful. A policy typically contains description of government intentions formulated into concrete objectives, as well as the rationale behind government targets. Furthermore, policies guide programmatic responses. The aim of this study is to explore how ICTs' anti-corruption potential have been understood at the policy level over time in ICT policies from nine Sub-Saharan African countries between 2000 and 2018. The study concludes that although there are signs of a growing understanding of ICTs as a multipurpose tool for anti-corruption towards the end of the period, most policies fail to produce a comprehensive and explicit narratives as well as statements affirming political will. The policy environment's development trajectory, albeit positive, thus leaves room for improvement in terms highlighting ICTs potential contributions.

**Keywords:** corruption, ICTs, transparency, accountability, Sub-Saharan Africa.

## 1 Introduction

The past decade has seen a growing consensus amongst governments across Africa and development partners that corruption threatens to undo past development gains. Corruption, defined as “the misuse of a public or private position for direct or indirect personal gain” (p.23) in The United Nations Convention against Corruption [1], makes future development targets outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals unattainable. It is estimated that nearly 148 billion USD a year is lost to corruption In Sub-Saharan Africa [2]. At the macro level, corruption threaten economic growth [3] and is a key deterrent for investors and a major constraint to business operations [4]. Furthermore, corruption disproportionally hurt the poorest citizens as they are more dependent on publicly funded services [5]. Corruption erodes societies by moving away resources from its intended purposes and no sector or actor is immune to its adverse impact on daily life. However, despite strong consensus amongst donors, business and political leaders concerning the negative effects of corruption, as well as impressive legal reforms with many countries adopting key international anti-corruption conventions, corruption levels remain high in most of Sub-Saharan Africa [6]. If has

<footnote n="1">¹Uppsala University 75313 Uppsala, Sweden</footnote>

<footnote n="2">²Örebro University, 701 82 Örebro, Sweden</footnote>
even been suggested that corruption has gotten more entrenched with the efforts to stem it. Person et al. argue that failures of anti-corruption reforms is the result of an implementation deficit.

As the particular drivers of corruption to a degree is both context dependent and a result of perspective in the sense that the political, historical, social, cultural and/or institutional lenses color the analyses; the knowledge base on effective anti-corruption measures is still incomplete. A key constraint in research on corruption is that many studies have low general applicability, as different disciplines places different weight on different drivers, and thus advocate for different ways to address corruption. Despite these caveats, this study aligns with research that argues that political will and political commitment [4, 7-9] is of an overriding importance to the success of any measures and its implementation. Addressing systematic misuse of power is only possible with resolute political will. Establishing and sustaining political will is paramount and supersedes other often referred to counter-measures, such as strengthen media institutions for greater accountability [10], legal and law enforcement reforms [11] and international reform pressure [4, 9].

It has been repeatedly argued that Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), can be an important tool for anti-corruption efforts. ICTs main contribution, lies in their ability to address the traditional information asymmetry between government and citizens [12-14]. Access to relevant government information is essential for citizens' awareness and mobilization to hold officials accountable for lack services or requests for unlawful fees. Citizens equipped with not only knowledge of the government's service contract, but corruption as a topic in general, significantly increase the risk of detection of corruption [13]. Furthermore, mobiles can facilitate citizens' mobilization around poor service delivery, as well as make reporting of mismanagement and corruption easier and affordable [15]. In short, ICTs support multiple important processes, which combined could create a non-conducive environment for corruption.

With most of Sub-Saharan Africa continuing to display high corruption levels, this study aims to explore how ICTs' anti-corruption potential have been understood at the policy level over time, as well as if the policy texts contain an explicit declaration of political will to explore ICTs for anti-corruption purposes. As a policy is a set of principles and strategies developed to guide actions [16], they are suitable for analyzing intent. Policies traditionally also contain description of the rational for policy direction, and as such, suitable for gauging policy makers' understanding of ICTs over time. Furthermore, policy language plays a key role in informing and guiding programmatic responses.

## 1.1 ICTs potential role in anti-corruption efforts

ICTs in general and mobile phones in particular, can be instrumental in addressing a key corruption enabler - the lack of government information. It has repeatedly been suggested that one of ICTs primary contribution to anti-corruption efforts, is its ability to spread information and thus increase transparency. In a study of 70 countries, Internet adoption was found to cause corruption levels to go down, but the effect was small, arguably because Internet's potential was yet be fully realized [12]. Gaskin [15] comes to a similar conclusion and argues that access to Internet can have a sig-
nificant impact on corruption by increasing transparency, and that although mobiles also have a statistically significant impact on transparency, it is weaker [15]. Goel, Nelson, and Naretta [13] study on web-searches suggests that access to information that leads to greater corruption awareness reduces both corruption perceptions and corruption incidence. They suggest that greater corruption awareness and overall understanding of the phenomenon is pivotal for bringing down corruption levels.

The fast proliferation of mobiles has been of particularly interest, as they offer opportunities for by-passing government-controlled channels and open up for citizen-led horizontal crowd-sourcing of information, as well as a way to easily and affordably mobilize around corruption. Mobiles can support anonymous reporting of absences of a service or if the public officials requested an unlawful fee. Kanyam, Kostandini and Ferreira [17] argues, in their study of 44 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, that mobile phones in particular can be instrumental for raising the level of corruption awareness, and be an effective tool for reporting corruption. They conclude that although it is difficult to assert the causal linkage in the midst of a myriad of interacting factors between corruption and mobile phone penetration; the “empirical findings suggest that mobile phone penetration is a powerful tool in combating perceived corruption” (p.279).

Bailard [18] finds a significant correlation between higher mobile phone penetration and lower levels of perceived corruption in 46 African countries. Bailard suggest that mobile's main contribution lies in the ability to directly challenge government's traditional information monopoly. It is argued that “corruption prefers the shadows and abhors transparency” (p.337). Mobiles poses a direct threat to corruption as they decentralize the control over information, and decrease the opportunities to commit corrupt acts undetected.

ICTs contribution to citizens' efforts to hold public officials accountable for their actions is a reoccurring theme. While mobiles by no means automatically turn into an anti-corruption tool, even in corrupt-ridden contexts; there are multiple empirical cases of mobiles being used to that particular end. Zanello and Massen [19] finds in their study that there are enough data to conclude that mobile can be a useful tool for pushing authorities to improve service delivery, and when given the opportunity, mobiles become an important tool for strengthening citizen agency.

Other studies have however cautioned against techno-optimistic and wishful thinking when it comes to ICTs as an anti-corruption tool. Without an independent judiciary and strong law enforcement agencies, detected corruption will go unpunished, or even worse, be silently endorsed by the same institutions. Sassi and Ali [11] conclude, in their study of 47 African countries, that there is a “high corruption inertia in Africa” (p.662). The study finds that although transparency is an important aspect to anti-corruption efforts, the rule of law is the strongest factor determining the level of corruption.

With political will accepted as a necessary condition for successful anti-corruption measures, what policy priorities should be made based on the literature? First of all, as corruption thrives in contexts with high information asymmetry, where citizens and business are largely ignorant of the government's service contract; increased transparency constitute an key component in anti-corruption efforts. [20, 21]. With
improved transparency, citizens become aware of what type of laws and regulation that govern a particular sector, as well as what services they are entitled to and to what cost. Lindstedt and Naurin [22] argues that transparency indeed is an effective tool for combating corruption, but not enough, which inevitably introduces a second key concept; that of accountability. Just making government information available will not prevent or deter corruption, if there is no one to hold governments accountable such as a free press or free general elections where citizens hold government's accountable for their action [22]. They conclude that reforms targeting increasing transparency are unlikely to be effective unless they are "accompanied by measures for strengthening citizens' capacity to act upon available information if we are to see positive effects on corruption" (p.301). Even if greater transparency does not automatically lead to citizens holding their public servant and politicians accountable, it is a necessary precondition. Accountability is impossible without access to information. In short, transparency is a prerequisite and enabler for citizens' empowerment, but alone not sufficient to lead to accountability or create a culture of accountability. Furthermore, as suggested by Goel et al., [13] an accountability readiness amongst citizen, is dependent on not only an awareness of the government's service contact, but a understanding of corruption as a phenomena, as well as context appropriate responses to corruption.

With the input from the literature review, we constructed a conceptual framework that revolves around the two mutually reinforcing concepts – transparency and accountability.(see Fig. 1). The framework served two purposes. Firstly to create an overview of ICTs anti-corruption potential by increasing transparency and enabling accountability, as well as the concepts’ inter-dependence. Secondly, the framework informed and guided the analyses of ICT policies.

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>Fig. 1. ICT/anti-corruption framework</figcaption></figure>

## 2 Method

With an aim to explore how ICTs' anti-corruption potential have been understood over time in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as assess political will to explore ICTs for
anti-corruption purposes, ICT policies and strategy documents deemed a reasonable source. An initial cursory review of the potential material found that documents labeled national "ICT strategy", was not markedly different from what other countries labeled policy. Both document types were thus included. While most of the 46 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have ICT policies, we chose to limit the selection of included policies based on the following criteria: 1) The country should display a minimum level of political will and commitment to fight corruption by having ratified at least one of the main international legal documents (AU Convention against corruption, SADC Protocol: against corruption, or UN convention Against corruption). 2) A limitation in time was set. The growth in access and affordability of the ICT, as well as mobile phones becoming affordable can be roughly dated to early 2000s. The majority of Sub-Saharan countries launched their first ICT policies in the first few years of 2000s and the collection period was set from 2000 to 2018. 3) In order to ensure that policy-environment were equivalent in terms of it being actively reflection of government priorities, sample countries needed to display a commitment to continued policy development. Over an 18-year period it is reasonable to have developed a minimum of five ICT related policies. Countries with five or more policies or strategies were included. 4) As e-government began to be adopted and grow into a separate policy area during the selected timeframe, we deemed it likely that an exploration of ICTs as a potential anti-corruption tool could potentially move from a generic ICT policy into e-government policies. Consequently, the latest e-government policy was also included.

The data set came to consist of two generic ICT policies per country and the country's latest e-government policy (if it exists). In total, 18 generic ICT policies were analyzed and six e-government policies (see table 1).

<table><caption>**Table 1.** Policy documents</caption><thead><tr><td>Country</td><td>Policy documents</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Botswana</td><td>2004 - National ICT Policy - Legislative Framework &amp; Change Report<br>2011 - Botswana's National e-Government Strategy 2011-2016 *<br>2012 - Parliament of Botswana - ICT Master Plan</td></tr><tr><td>Kenya</td><td>2006 - National Information &amp; Communications Technology (ICT) Policy<br>2016 - National Information &amp; Communications Technology (ICT) Policy</td></tr><tr><td>Malawi</td><td>2003 - Malawi Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Policy<br>2013 - National ICT Policy<br>2014 - Public Service ICT Standards *</td></tr><tr><td>Namibia</td><td>2002 - Information and Communication Technology Policy<br>2014 - e-Government Strategic Action Plan of the Public Service (2014-2018) *<br>2009 - Strategic Plan of the MoICT in the Rep. of Namibia 2009 to 2013</td></tr><tr><td>Nigeria</td><td>2001 - Nigerian national policy for information technology (IT) - 'use it<br>2012 - Nigerian information communication technology (ICT) policy</td></tr><tr><td>Rwanda</td><td>2001 - ICT-led Socio-Economic Development Policy and Plan 2001 - 2005<br>2015 - ICT Smart Rwanda 2020 Master Plan</td></tr><tr><td>South Africa</td><td>2001 - The Digital Future - A Public Service IT Policy Framework<br>2017 - The National e-Government Strategy and Roadmap. *<br>2016 - National Integrated ICT Policy -white paper</td></tr><tr><td>Tanzania</td><td>2003 - National Information and Communications Technologies Policy</td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><tr><td>a</td><td>2013 - Tanzania e-Government Strategy *</td></tr><tr><td></td><td>2016 - Ministry of Works, Transport and Communication National ICT Policy</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="3">Uganda</td><td>2003 - National Information and Communication Technology Policy</td></tr><tr><td>2011 - National Electronic Government (e-Government) Policy Framework *</td></tr><tr><td>2014 - National Information and Communications Technology Policy</td></tr></table>

## 2.1 Document analysis

The document analysis commenced with identifying all instances where the key concepts: corruption, corrupt, transparency, transparent, accountable and accountability, occurred in the policies and strategies. Relevant texts excerpts were copied into a spreadsheet. After the text collection, a content analysis informed by our ICT/anti-corruption framework began. The initial content analysis focused on how the concepts and their interdependence in relation to anti-corruption efforts, as well as how ICTs were enlisted or not. Through this qualitative content analysis, differences in terms of how key concepts were refereed to became discernable and was later grouped into three categories depending on the texts' interaction and level of acknowledgement of ICT as a potential multi-purpose tool against corruption. After refining the category descriptions, all country's policies were identified as belonging to one of the following types: *under-developed*, *nascent* or *comprehensive* (see table 2).

Policies were also scanned separately for explicit statements declaring political will to explore ICTs for anti-corruption purposes.

<table><caption>**Table 1.** Categories - under-developed, nascent or comprehensive</caption><thead><tr><td>The under-developed approach</td><td>The nascent approach</td><td>The comprehensive approach</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>ICTs are not directly linked to transparency, and accountability or corruption, although one or several of the concepts may be textually present as generic concepts.</td><td>Transparency and accountability are referred to as ideals that should guide state and non-state actors. ICTs (and e-government) are referred to as a tool to increase transparency, and/or accountability in generic terms. ICTs are not directly identified as anti-corruption tools, although corruption may be mentioned as a development barrier.</td><td>ICTs are understood as a multi-purpose tool against corruption, where ICTs contribution lies in their ability to increase transparency and diminish information asymmetry between state and non-state actors, which enables non-state actors' to exercise oversight, i.e., to hold the state accountable. ICTs are explicitly identified as a tool against corruption.</td></tr></tbody></table>

<footnote>* E-government/governance policies</footnote>
# 3 Results

The studied countries are all signatories to international and regional instruments to combat corruption [2], and thus recognizes corruption as a development barrier best addressed through reforms. The persistent high corruption levels, with the notable exceptions of Botswana and Rwanda, does however indicate that political rhetoric has not been followed up by necessary reforms (Fig. 2).

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 1.** Case countries’ corruption perception trajectory over time (higher value is connected to lower corruption perception levels). TI data ranking 2012-2017 [6]</figcaption></figure>

## 3.1 Transparency, accountability and corruption

Almost all policies include a reference to *transparency/transparent*, and the concept is more frequently featured to than accountability or accountable. The text references are however often general in nature or in conjunction with accountability and then often without a clear distinction between the two terms. The Namibian E-government policy (2014) will serve as example when it lists the following objectives in relation to its ambition to developed a citizen-centric service delivery: “To enable transparency and accountability in governance and promote civic engagement through greater access to information” (p.17). The surrounding text does not shed further light on how the two concepts are “enabled” by ICTs or how they are inter-related. Nigeria (2000/2001), similarly identifies transparency and accountable as important aspects of services delivery, without providing details on the envisioned virtual forums.

“Bringing Government to the doorsteps of the people by creating virtual forum and facilities to strengthen accessibility to government information and facilitating interaction between the governed and Government leading of transparency, accountability and strengthening of democracy”. (p.40)
If the concept of transparency is vague in the policies, **accountability** is even more
so. Accountability typically refers to the expectation that governments are liable and
are accountable for its actions. Accountability is closely related to the concept of be-
ing held accountable by someone, for example a citizen. As described earlier, access
to relevant and up-to-date government-related information is a prerequisite for citi-
zens being familiar with their government's service contract and when necessary,
hold those in power responsible for deviations. There are hints on how this should be
achieved in some of the policies, e.g., In the Botswana ICT master plan (2012) they
state that ICT can be used to:

"[s]trengthen transparency and accountability by using an information
system which monitors and tracks government assurances and helps to hold
the Executive branch of government accountable" (p.23)

Accountability often appears in the material as an ideal, rather than as an active verb, as in “being accountable” or “held accountable”. The Namibian 2009 policy refers to accountability as a value “our [The Ministry of I&CT’s mission] behaviour is ruled by a set of core values. These values are: Openness, Responsiveness, Integrity, Caring, Accountability” (p7). Accountability is later described as “MI&CT keeps the nation informed on existing and future Government policies, projects, programmes and activities and openly provides information on the use of the resources at our dis-posal” (p19). Accountability, in this instance, however appears to be synonymous to transparency. Furthermore, accountability is often featured as an aspect of governance, which cannot be assumed to include anti-corruption efforts, unless it is clearly stated

Even if few policies explores the linkage between the transparency and account-
ability, as well as how ICTs could increase transparency and enhance accountability,
which jointly could have an impact on corruption levels; there are a few exceptions.
With incomplete narratives around the three key concepts, transparency, accountabil-
ity and corruption being the norm, two out of the nine policies were however labelled
as comprehensive. The two policies - Tanzania's National ICT policy (2016) and
Uganda National Electronic Government (e-Government) Policy Framework (2011),
were categorized as comprehensive as they included not only references to trans-
parency and accountability, but also linked them to **corruption**. The policies also out-
lined how ICTs can support efforts to increase transparency around governance pro-
cesses and government services; and thus enable accountability, which combined cre-
ates a non-conducive environment for corruption. The Tanzanian ICT policy also
problematize ICTs, which signal critical awareness. That is, ICTs is not a magic
wand.

"ICT offers concrete opportunities for local and central governments to improve their performance in terms of transparency, accountability, citizen participation and decentralization. At the same time, it offers citizens to know the services they are supposed to/or receive from their contribution through taxes. The mainstreaming of ICTs within planning and design of development strategies helps to strengthen the establishment of efficient, effective and transparent governance systems. Online tools can significantly improve the rendering of services and information flows from administrations to their constituencies; communication between
administrations and citizens can be enhanced and ICTs offer unique opportunities for broadened citizen involvement and participation in the decision making process. Various endeavors were made by the Government to ensure that ICT support good Governance. These include provision of online services, which increases transparency, accountability, citizens' participation, and reduced corruption. However, there are challenges that need to be addressed which include mainstreaming the use of ICT in government operations in order to increase government accountability, transparency and reducing corruption" (p.32)

While not as explicit, the Uganda e-government policy, signal an understanding of ICTs as a tool for increasing citizens’ access to relevant information, and ability to hold government accountable:

> "The GOU believes that ICT should be utilized in this era of e-Government aimed at; providing greater access to government information; promoting civic engagement by enabling the public to interact with government officials; making government more accountable by ensuring its operations are more transparent and thus reducing the opportunities for corruption. (p.19)

> It should however be noted that although both policies were categorized as comprehensive, they both fell short of explicitly articulating ICTs as a multi-purpose tool as presented in our proposed framework (Fig 1). The framework does attempt to highlight that ICTs could, or even needs to support parallel and multiple government driven and citizens-initiated processes, to be fully effective in terms of creating a non-conducive environment for corruption.

## 3.2 Main findings: positive trend despite silence around corruption

Our analysis generated three main findings. Firstly, there is an overall positive trend in terms of how policies engage with the topic in the 18 years under study (see table 3). Later policies show a greater understanding of how ICTs could be used to create a non-conducive environment for corruption, and in particular ICTs usefulness for increasing transparency. The main reason for earlier policies being categorized as under-developed is their near total absence of references to corruption or how ICTs could contribute to increasing transparency and enhancing accountability, even in instances where the two later terms are present in the policy texts. This finding is closely related to the second finding; the absence of references to corruption and acknowledgment of corruption as a development challenge. The silences around corruption in noteworthy in policies where other development challenges are both identified and discussed. Indeed, most policies contain both background sections outlining key barriers to development, such as, lack of basic infrastructure, education and skills deficits amongst policy makers, public officials and the public to utilize ICTs, and sections outlining development aspirations. A third finding is that e-government policies, which typically addresses governance issues and the systems which public services gets delivered; did not replace the generic ICT policy as the preferred space to explore ICTs as a multi-purpose tool against corruption. Nor does e-government poli-
cies appeared to have sparked a greater interest in the topic. Most e-government policies failed to demonstrate a clear understanding of the inter-dependence of transparency and accountability, as well as how ICTs can contribute to greater transparency and accountability.

Finally, referring back to our framework (Fig. 1), we maintain that anti-corruption efforts need to be guided by a clear understanding that transparency and accountability are sides of a coin and only jointly will they create a non-conducive environment for corruption. In the policies analyzed, however, only two of them expressively linked all three constructs (transparency, accountability and corruption). Indeed, most policies in the sample, even when containing multiple references to all three concepts, transparency, accountability and to a lesser degree, corruption, have incomplete narratives of the three concepts' interconnectedness. The inter-dependence of transparency and accountability, as well as how ICTs contribution is vague at best. A somewhat harsh summary would be; ICTs are perceived to be useful for a range of sectors and processes, but anti-corruption is seldom one of them. Table 3, summarizes the findings.

<table><caption>**Table 1.** Summary of the policies</caption><thead><tr><td>Country</td><td>"Old/Early" Policy</td><td>"New/latest" Policy</td><td>E-gov Policy</td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Botswana</td><td>Under-developed</td><td>Nascent</td><td>Under-developed</td></tr><tr><td>Kenya</td><td>Under-developed</td><td>Nascent</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>Malawi</td><td>Under-developed</td><td>Nascent</td><td>Under-developed</td></tr><tr><td>Namibia</td><td>Under-developed</td><td>Under-developed</td><td>Nascent</td></tr><tr><td>Nigeria</td><td>Nascent</td><td>Under-developed</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>Rwanda</td><td>Under-developed</td><td>Nascent</td><td>N/A</td></tr><tr><td>South Africa</td><td>Under-developed</td><td>Nascent</td><td>Nascent</td></tr><tr><td>Tanzania</td><td>Nascent</td><td>Comprehensive</td><td>Nascent</td></tr><tr><td>Uganda</td><td>Under-developed</td><td>Nascent</td><td>Comprehensive</td></tr></tbody></table>

## 4 Discussion

The analysis of the policies suggests an overall positive development in the sense that the understanding of how ICTs could be useful by addressing the traditional information asymmetry has increased, and that by ensuring access to government-related information, citizens become better equipped to hold public servants accountable. In Sub-Saharan Africa, where corruption levels have been consistently high, policy makers' improved understanding and willingness to explore new tools to address citizens' lack of information is a welcomed change. However, only two policies were labeled as *comprehensive* along the lines of our proposed framework (see Fig. 1). Although Tanzania and Ugandan policies should be given credit, they did not include all aspect of the proposed framework. While we recognize that the generic ICTs policies may have another primary purpose and thus approach ICTs from a general development perspective; we argue that in contexts with high levels of corruption, policies should reflect corruption as part of the overall package of development challenges. Furthermore, we find it quite worrying that most policies, and e-government policies in par-
ticular failed to acknowledge corruption as a key development barrier and conse-
quently explore ICTs' potential contribution to anti-corruption efforts. The reviewed
policies' almost compact silence around corruption, or cursory mentioning at best,
could be argued to indicate unwillingness to acknowledge the issue. The fact that we
failed to find a single instance where policy makers explicitly pledged to explore ICTs
as a multi-purpose tool to fight corruption, would lend further support to this interpre-
tation. The general lack of details outlining how and which ICTs are to be explored
for increasing transparency and enabling accountability could be taken as another in-
dication of reluctance to utilize ICTs to increase transparency and thus equip citizens
with at least one of the necessary conditions for holding official accountable.
A more benevolent interpretation of the results is that the non-existing or incomplete
narratives around ICTs' anti-corruption potential reflect a knowledge gap as opposed
to unwillingness to engage with the topic. The fact that all countries in the study have
signed international anti-corruption conventions and/or protocols, could lend some
support to this hypothesis. But if that was indeed the case, other reforms should have
made a dent in corruption levels, and that is not the case in the studied countries
(Fig.2).

Our study cannot provide a definite answer as to why ICTs are not more promi-
nently featured. But we did find it worrying that e-government polices did not explore
ICTs as part of a toolbox against corruption. After all, an e-government policy is
tasked with mapping out how the use of ICTs can improve governance, increase effi-
ciency and effectiveness in the delivery of public service as well as facilitate citizens'
and businesses' general interaction with the Government. Indeed, it is hard to envi-
sion how a credible e-government policy can ignore one of the major barriers to area-
related outcomes. We thus come back to our initial tentative conclusion. Anti-corrup-
tion efforts, even at the most elementary level, in the shape of policy document is
hampered by a lack of genuine political will and general anti-corruption inertia.

Finally, although, the paper’s geographic focus is limited, it is our hope that the
proposed framework which guided the analysis of policy environments can contribute
to and inform development partners’ critical dialogue with partner policy makers. and
inform With political will being pivotal to change, international partners may have an
important role to play here. It has been suggested that political momentum for change
may not always have to be of domestic origins. Instead, international community, i.e.,
business community and development partners who understands the specific drivers
of corruption as well as knows the context-specific values and moral environment,
can play an important role in exerting significant pressure on partner governments [4]
to start exploring the Terra incognita of ICTs as tool for anti-corruption efforts.

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