Pro-automation equals anti-corruption

IT MAY NOT be easy to spot the connection right away, but there is surely a direct correlation between automation and corruption.

Simply put, if there is automation, there is no corruption. That is because if there is automation, there is no discretion.

Going direct to the point, if there is no discretion, there is no corruption.

At the risk of sounding redundant, that is simply how it goes. No corruption if there is no discretion. No discretion if there is automation.

To put this in another way, there is no in-between if everything is in black and white. If everything is in black and white, there are no grey areas. If there are no grey areas, then there is no room for discretion.

I have spent many years in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) business, and I have encountered many examples of how the “human factor” has hampered or has affected the implementation of ICT projects that would lead to automation.

Perhaps it could be said that these “people” are just unwilling or unable to support these projects, but it seems that in many cases, “they” do not want to automate anything because that would prevent “them” from exercising their discretionary “powers.”

As much as possible, these “people” would want to preserve the status quo because if everything is fully automated, they would be fully out of the loop.

While having dinner with a Filipino expat from Malaysia, we talked about the many possible ways of automating the public services of the Local Government Units (LGUs) in the Philippines. After hearing that local government automation is already very pervasive in Malaysia, our dinner host suddenly asked why we have not done it in the Philippines, meaning to say why we have not automated the similar services here.

Not really knowing how to answer him, I simply said that the reason, perhaps the one and only reason is the lack of political will.

Even if I said that, however, I did not exactly mean that the situation is hopeless, because I believe that there are some pockets of partial success all over the country where automation is starting to gain some traction, even if it has not reached the point of erasing or weakening corruption.

In theory, it is possible to systematize the information capabilities of the LGUs, even without computerization. Yes, paper records and ledgers could be kept even without computers.

To add to that, corruption could actually be prevented by simply using manual methods. As a matter of fact, not even the use of computers could prevent corruption, especially if there is still discretion in the data entry. As the saying goes, “garbage in, garbage out” and that has not changed yet. (To be continued) (iseneres@yahoo.com/PN)