Digital transformation of anti-corruption: a retrospective and development prospects

Shamekhina Ellada Vladimirovna Assistant, Department of Delectology and Criminology of the Law Institute, Siberian Federal University 660075, Russia, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Krasnoyarsk, Maerchaka str., 6 lada.shamehina@mail.ru

In the modern world, the use of digital technologies has become a necessary element of the successful functioning of almost all social institutions, and the sphere of public power is no exception. As the President of the Russian Federation noted in his Address to the Federal Assembly in 2018, "digitalization of the entire public administration system, increasing its transparency is a powerful factor in combating corruption." The introduction of new technological solutions carries a lot of advantages of an economic and social nature. In this regard, one of the national development goals of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030, outlined in the Presidential Decree of July 21, 2020, is digital transformation.

The digital transformation of state and municipal administration seems to be a logical continuation of the trend of recent years towards universal digitalization. Due to the novelty and "blurring" of the boundaries of the designated phenomenon, the term "digital transformation" has no generally accepted definition either in legislation or in scientific discourse.

At the present stage of development of society and the state, digital transformation has become a subject of increasing interest for the scientific community. The doctrine ^{[1; 2; 3]} outlines the trends of cognition of the socio-economic and political content of this phenomenon, its technical characteristics. Rapid technological progress and the dynamic development of new technologies do not allow us to determine the scale, as well as the ways and means of digital transformation of society.

There is a widespread understanding of digital transformation as a process in the scientific literature. This approach is due to the etymology of the Latin term "transformatio", which means "transformation". In this aspect, digital transformation is proposed to be understood as the process of "changing (transforming) established economic and social institutions in connection with the introduction of digital technologies" ^{[4, p. 11]}. At the same time, digital transformation is not limited only to the development or use of new technological solutions, but consists in the transformation of familiar formats and models of interaction between participants in public relations. With regard to the digital transformation of public and municipal administration, it should be noted that its goal "is not to introduce certain technologies into the activities of public authorities, but to make public administration itself more efficient and effective" ^{[5, p. 245]}.

Digital transformation acts as a guideline for development and determines the directions for improving the forms of interaction between the structural elements of society in various spheres of social life through integration into traditional models of relationships of the latest technological solutions. In this context, the search for new communication opportunities that can become the basis for the formation of a social reality based on the principles of sustainable development becomes particularly relevant.

The impact of digitalization on the sphere of state and municipal administration today is difficult to overestimate. The scientific community notes that the use of modern information technologies in public administration "has significantly allowed to change the performance of the functions assigned to state bodies, to ensure the openness of their activities" ^{[6, p. 15]}, as well as to establish new forms of communication between the state and citizens. The consequence of the trend towards digital transformation is that at the moment almost every representative of civil society can personally participate in state and municipal government, and the openness of information has acquired a presumptive character.

Openness and publicity of the activities of state bodies and local self-government bodies are attributed to the principles of combating corruption, as follows from the provisions of Article 3 of the Federal Law "On Combating Corruption". Digital transformation has a direct impact on reducing the level of corruption in public and municipal administration, and the use of digital forms of interaction between the state and society in the realities of the modern world is a prerequisite for effective anti-corruption.

The analysis of the National Anti-Corruption Plan approved in 2008 showed that the digitalization of public administration is considered as one of the goals of the state anti-corruption policy. The Government of the Russian Federation has been entrusted with the development and financing of measures for the creation and use of innovative technologies of public administration and administration that increase the objectivity and ensure transparency of management processes. Reacting to the rapid development of the information infrastructure of society, the state has set the authorities the task of ensuring "information openness of various aspects of their activities" ^{[7, p.]}. This initiative served as a start for the future digital transformation of the sphere of public administration and the emergence of new tools and mechanisms to combat corruption in government.

As the President of the Russian Federation noted in his Address to the Federal Assembly in 2009, the development of strategic and information technologies has become a priority task of the state, and the comprehensive modernization should be based on the values and institutions of democracy.

Digitalization of the sphere of public administration has intensified with the beginning of the provision of public services through electronic communication channels. The 2009 Presidential Address emphasizes that the introduction of electronic technologies not only ensures the convenience of receiving public services, but also "should become a powerful tool for combating corruption." In order to fulfill these tasks, the first e–government platform was launched in December 2009 - the federal state information system "Unified Portal of State and Municipal Services (Functions)". At the time of launch, information about 110 federal–level services and more than 200 regional and municipal services were posted on the portal.

Immediately after the launch of the project, there was a tendency to expand the capabilities of the portal of state and municipal services. The National Anti-Corruption Strategy, approved in 2010, as one of the main directions of the implementation of the anti-corruption policy of the state, fixed the need to introduce into the activities of public authorities "innovative technologies that increase objectivity and ensure transparency in the adoption of legislative (regulatory) acts of the Russian Federation, municipal legal acts and management decisions, as well as providing interdepartmental electronic the interaction of these bodies and their interaction with citizens and organizations in the provision of public services." The positive impact of digitalization of public administration in the aspect of countering corruption has become more significant.

In the Annual Address to the Federal Assembly of 2011 The President of Russia announced the completion of a full-scale transition to contactless document management technologies in the implementation of state functions and the provision of public services to the population. The President stressed that electronic technologies serve not only as a tool to save time and increase the availability of public services to the population, but also "provide better transparency, which is extremely necessary for combating corruption."

The role of innovations in ensuring openness and publicity of state activities is positively assessed in the national doctrine. In the context of the development of modern information technologies in the field of combating corruption, O. V. Alexandrova suggests understanding information openness as "the legal regime of information contained in information systems, which provides for the obligation of state bodies and local self-government bodies to ensure the implementation of everyone's constitutional right to information," and ensuring information openness is carried out through search, collection, storage, processing, provision, dissemination of information. At the same time, one of the key criteria for information openness is "accessibility and comprehensibility of information about the activities of public authorities and their officials" ^{[8, p. 118]}. It seems that electronic technologies are the most effective modern tools of information support that meet the realities of today.

Electronic forms of interaction between the state and society significantly contribute to reducing the level of corruption in the sphere of public administration. V. V. Astanin believes that "information support of publicity and openness of the activities of state bodies opens up a large field not only for the implementation of mechanisms for civil society participation in combating corruption, but also for assessing their interaction with state bodies" ^{[9, p. 6]}. Studies have shown that the introduction of contactless technologies when working with applicants sometimes leads to the complete elimination of entire sectors of domestic corruption ^{[10, p. 69]}, and openness of information is one of the elements of preventing corruption manifestations.

However, it is not only the openness of the activities of state bodies that is necessary for the successful fight against corruption. As A. A. Korobov correctly noted, "in order to reduce the level of corruption in government structures, first of all, a regime of "transparency" of government activities is necessary, allowing continuous monitoring and control over it by the general public" ^{[11, p. 203]}. It should be noted that "transparency" in relation to public authorities in the scientific environment is most often understood as the availability of information about the activities of state bodies to a wide range of people ^{[12, p. 236]}. In this regard, it should be noted that the introduction of certain electronic tools and forms of communication in the process of providing public services may not fully contribute to the establishment of control and accountability of the actions of authorities, since they cannot be used for constant and continuous monitoring and an unbiased assessment of the legality of the behavior of civil servants.

The solution to this problem is seen in the transition from e-government to digital government, which began in 2012. The essence of this transition is as follows: e-government, the focus of which was to provide public services through the use of the Internet, is transformed into a government organized according to the network principle, its key core is the latest digital technologies, and "interaction and interrelations between citizens and the state begin to play a priority role" ^{[13, p. 127]}.

The change of the vector from electronic forms of interaction between the state and society to digital ones was noted by President Vladimir Putin in his Messages to the Federal Assembly in 2016 . In particular, it is pointed out the need for development in "areas where the powerful technological potential of the future is accumulating, and these are digital, ... so-called end-to-end technologies that today determine the appearance of all spheres of life." This statement intensified the process of digital transformation of the sphere of public administration – the integration of advanced technologies into the processes of interaction between authorities and citizens, which led to the emergence of new channels of political participation and communication between the state and society.

In the scientific literature, the opinion is expressed that it is the digital transformation of the sphere of public administration that can dramatically increase the effectiveness of combating corruption in the sphere of public power. The speed of technological changes in the world is rapidly increasing, and the introduction of new technologies in the processes of countering corruption manifestations today is a prerequisite for a successful anti-corruption policy. 

The core of digital transformation is end–to-end technologies - the key areas of the national technology initiative, which primarily include big data, blockchain technology and artificial intelligence. The anti-corruption potential of these digital technologies in recent years has become the subject of scientific research by such scientists as N. V. Bugaevskaya ^[14], K. S. Evsikov ^[10], A. G. Kravchenko ^[15], D. V. Krylova ^[16], G. V. Nazarenko ^[17], A. I. Ovchinnikov ^[18] and others. Despite the different approaches to analytics and the statement of risks inherent in digital transformation, most representatives of the scientific community confirm the existence of a positive correlation between the trend towards the development of end-to-end digital technologies and a decrease in the level of corruption. The study of the possibilities of these technological solutions in the field of prevention and combating corruption is beyond the scope of this study. However, it should be noted that "the use of digital technologies to combat corruption and the development of measures to counteract new forms of corruption associated with the use of digital technologies" are among the priorities of state policy. In particular, the latest domestic anti-corruption project based on big data analytics was the Poseidon digital anti-corruption information system, which was launched in 2022. Assessing the prospects of this system, we can conclude that the creation of a single database accumulating and analyzing information from a wide variety of sources has a huge anti-corruption potential ^[19].

As noted above, the use of digital solutions in the provision of public services makes a significant contribution to reducing corruption in this area, and "electronic communication" with citizens and organizations is the "highest form of electronic organization of power" ^{[20, p. 185]}. In this regard, the federal project "Digital Public Administration", within the framework of which digital transformation is being carried out, considers as a key indicator an increase in the share of mass socially significant services available in electronic form to 95% by 2030. These and other initiatives undoubtedly contribute to minimizing corruption risks in the field of public services and lead to a reduction in the overall level of corruption in the country. At the same time, it is impossible to deny the evolution of corruption practices and the emergence of new forms of it, in particular the so-called cybercorruption associated with the global digital transformation of public life.

The digital transformation of the public administration process can have a significant impact on its transparency and accessibility for external control, which is a necessary condition for the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures. Digital transformation contributes to achieving a broad cross-sectoral effect ^[21] and should qualitatively change the usual models of interaction. The introduction of end-to-end digital technologies is now becoming the standard of an effective, modern approach to the exercise of public power and "allows us to reach a completely new level of prevention and combating various corruption offenses" ^{[22, p. 17]}. Thus, the digital transformation of public administration is one of the most effective and promising areas in the field of combating corruption, and the openness and transparency of the activities of the authorities associated with digitalization have an undoubted anti-corruption potential.