Could Big Data and Artificial Intelligence support efforts to minimize corruption risks in public administrations?

This question moved the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) to support an Anti-corruption Innovation Challenge.The event was organized to seek innovative approaches in the fight against corruption. The International Monetary Fund, in partnership with the MIT–IBM AI Lab were the organizers.

The challenge resulted in more than 120 submissions from around the globe, showing promising ways in which big data and artificial intelligence can support SECO’s efforts to minimize corruption risks in public administrations. Out of eight finalists, four winners were selected for seed funding. SECO is looking forward to working with them to realize the potential of their proposals.

2020 Finalist

These were shortlisted to the top 8 most promising proposals by the evaluation committee. The top 8 projects include participants from IFIs, CSOs, government representatives and Fund staff.

TOPIC: ENHANCING GOVERNANCE IN PUBLIC FINANCE: THE ROLE OF DATA AND TECHNOLOGY

-Harvesting open data for early detection of conflicts of interest in public procurement. https://imfilab.brightidea.com/D360

-Corrupt Wage Bill Practices in Fragile States: A Blockchain Solution for Guinea-Bissau. https://imfilab.brightidea.com/D394

TOPIC: TACKLING CORRUPTION: FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE SYSTEMS FOR PUBLIC OFFICIALS

- Joining the dots with PEPs: using BO transparency and FD systems to identify red flags. https://imfilab.brightidea.com/D361

- Public Officials Risk Index (PORI)-A tool to combat corruption using disruptive technologies. https://imfilab.brightidea.com/D407

TOPIC: FIGHTING MONEY LAUNDERING: THE USE OF DATA FOR FINANCIAL INTELLIGENCE

- Optimizing Money Laundering Investigations in Brazil Through Data Analytics. https://imfilab.brightidea.com/D406

TOPIC: IMPROVING THE UNDERSTANDING OF RISKS OF CORRUPTION

- We Can Only Stop It, If We Understand It: Measuring Perceptions of Corruption through Gamification. https://imfilab.brightidea.com/D311

- Public procurement corruption risks: Harnessing Big Data for better fiscal governance and growth. https://imfilab.brightidea.com/D323

TOPIC: OPEN SUBMISSION ON USE OF OPEN OR BIG DATA FOR GOVERNANCE AND FIGHTING CORRUPTION

- Rule-of-Law Foundations:Improving Access to Laws & Regulations. https://imfilab.brightidea.com/D317

The eight finalist project teams completed an intensive “bootcamp” program in March led by the iLab and an external facilitator from the Lean Startup Co., where the teams learned innovation tools and methodologies and how to apply these to further develop their ideas.

See the Pitch Event here: https://youtu.be/AYGzRFepQTY

The Pitch Event represents the final step for selecting the winners of the Anti-Corruption Challenge (ACC) from the eight finalists. The ACC is the first crowdsourcing challenge to be open to external participants which was launched during the 2019 Annual Meetings. Over 120 ideas submitted from around the world in the crowdsourcing phase of the challenge.

IMF article:https://www.imf.org/en/Topics/innovation-at-the-imf/imf-acc-event