Online Platform to Report Corruption

Reporting mashup

Transparency International Latvia seeks to create an online platform that would give a face to corruption, provide immediate recommendations, and cooperation from NGOs and the media.

We propose an internet portal where corruption victims can share their stories anonymously, but everyone can view and act on them, either by commenting, rating trustworthiness or getting in touch and proposing help. This would be organised through an easy to use system in which the data can be filtered by time, location, institution, bribe amount, etc.

Another important function of the portal would be to present an accessible, easy to use resource bank. Logically, the site would promote the contacts of the Anti-Corruption Agency, investigative journalism shows and Transparency International Latvia. Additionally, TI Latvia will soon develop a corruption victim’s handbook. The AC agency has agreed to supply short guidelines on how to report to them and other state agencies more effectively and how to contest refusals to act. It is also intended to ask for a similar thing from the main media so they get higher quality leads.

The project will be a mashup, utilizing best open-source solutions. The backbone might be either FixMyStreet or Ushahidi. Communication between report authors and others should employ an anonymous remailer solution. Data base most likely will be run by regular MySQL.

Questions to consider for developers are below:

1. How do we make corruption visible and understandable? How can we convey at the stories behind the numbers so they can be taken up by anti-corruption activists? (Eurobarometer 2012 and Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer 2010 data show that 15 % of respondents or their family members have had a corruption experience in the past year).
2. According to statistics, most often people talk about their corruption experiences with their family or friends, with no further follow-up. They neither know their rights, nor dangers of bribing, nor where to seek help. However, there are numerous resources like the Anti-Corruption Agency, media, Transparency International Latvia and others.
3. At the moment it is also almost impossible for people with similar corruption experiences (e.g. in a municipality or when interacting with a state institution)  to find each other and try to tackle the problem together.