Radwa Saad June 2013
Corruption in Egypt: Statistical Back Round In recent survey conducted by Transparency International (2013) in Egypt, half of all respondents admitted to paying a bribe. 35% of Egyptians admit to having paid a bribe in the past year alone Egypt ranked 114th out of 177 in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2013
Corruption in Egypt: Statistical Back Round ď‚—
47% of small and medium businesses in Egypt are forced to offer government clerks cash bribes in order to obtain business licenses and must continually bribe them in order to avoid fines.
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In 2011, Global Integrity, a Washingtonbased watchdog, asserted that a staggering $57.2 billion had been illegally amassed by certain individuals in Egypt between 2000 and 2008
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Despite widespread corruption, 86% of Egyptians believe that demanding or taking a bribe is unjustifiable indicating that it is not a cultural practice, but the result of ineffective governance.
Causes of Corruption that can be addressed Lack of Information Although corruption is high, very little statistics are available on the nature of corruption in both the public and private sector. Furthermore, people are not aware how to open obtain certain services so they end up paying bribes due to lack of knowledge.
Lack of Concern Citizens are apathetic towards reporting bribes because they do not feel their reports will make a difference.
Lack of Accountability Data (collected in 2012) indicated that nothing happened to civil servants caught accepting a bribe for a license in 19 per cent of such cases; in another 41 per cent, investigations would be opened but not concluded.
Solution: Anadafa3tRashwa
IPAIDABRIBE.com is originally an initiative deployed by Janaagraha; an Indian based NGO that seeks to improve the quality of life and citizenship in Indian towns and cities. It is an attempt to combat corruption through the use of a website, where users can instantly report bribes they were forced to pay or honest police officers that refused to accept bribes. Once the bribes are reported, Jaanagraha helps users take legal action against bribe seekers and reports bribe incidents to the accountable government officials . It also gathers information to generate reports about the nature of corruption in India. Anadafa3tRashwa.com is the Egyptian version of ipaidabribe.com. It will utilize the same platform as Ipaidabribe but with modified context to meet Egypt’s needs. Jaanagraha will be providing all of the software and programming technology needed to launch the website while Anadafa3tRashwa will conceptualize, design and operate the website.
Anadafa3tRashwa Aims To: Heighten citizen awareness about the nature and spread of bribe-related exchanges and promote constructive public debates that pressure public officials to reduce and eventually eliminate corruption. ď‚— Help citizens recognize, avoid and tackle bribe paying situations. ď‚— Identify and analyze the workflows within corruption prone public services to generate suggestions on systemic reform directed at entrenching simpler and more transparent processes, more consistent standards of law enforcement and better vigilance and regulation. ď‚—
Target Market With an internet penetration rate of 15% across India, In 3 years; Ipaidabribe India has managed to draw:
4 Million Users
(approximately 1% of India’s internet users)
43,000 Reports
923 Cities
With an internet penetration rate of 50% across Egypt, in it’s first year anadafa3trashwa seeks to target:
425,000 Users
(approximately 1% of Egypt’s internet users)
5,000 Reports
13
Governorates
Work Plan Months Activity
March
Apr.
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept
Phase 1: Preparation Securing Partnership with Jaanagraha India Translation and development of website content Securing Partnership with local NGO (APHRA) Pilot of website Phase 2: Implementation Secure funding for marketing strategies Deploy online and offline marketing plan Phase 3: Launching Launch Website Generate first report for APHRA Feedback & progress analysis
= Completed
= In progress
= Upcoming Phases
Oct.
Dec.
Phase 1: Signing Contract with ARPHA APHRA is one of the biggest human rights organizations operating in Egypt. It is currently acting as the local wing for Transparency International The Arab Program for Human Rights Activists (APHRA) was found in 1997 as an urgent necessity to protect and promote the Concepts of Human Rights and the Democratic Values through defending the Arab Human Rights Activists and Defenders as well as serving and strengthening the Arab Human Rights Movement. They have recently been charged with overlooking the government body of anti-corruption to improve the quality of public services
Benefits of cooperating with APHRA
The mentorship, support and supervision of an experienced and influential organization Increased credibility that will increase IPAIDABRIBE’s ability to secure funding Greater outreach by promotion of the website through APHRAS wide networks of communication and media links A bridging entity that can assist users who interested in taking legal action against officials accused of accepting or demanding bribes. An entity that can benefit from the reports generated through website Ability to gain governmental support
How it works (Translation and development of content in Arabic) I met an Honest Officer
I am a Bribe Fighter
I paid a Bribe
How it works
Future Plans of Expansion How To:
Add a “how to� section where people can obtain information on the procedures involved in obtaining any governmental service.
Holistic Corruption Platform
Add a way to measure different forms of corruption (nepotism, abuse of power, etc.)
Private Sector Corruption
Add a way to measure private sector corruption as well.
Challenges Challenge: Ipaidabribe India has been highly criticized for publishing reports that are misleading and innaccurate as their sample size resembles less than .50% of the population. Solution: Anadafa3tRashwa Egypt will not publish reports that focus more on qualitative analysis and suggestions. It will not publish statistics on media outlets and will instead attempt to give limit access to these reports to NGOs and government officials. Challenge: Many people have become apathetic towards reporting bribes due to lack of the trust in the government and civil society sector. Solution: Anadafa3trashwa will focus on generating a series of “success stories� in which legal actions are taken against those who demanded bribes. It will work closely with media outlets to promote those stories. Furthermore, it will attempt to raise topics for debate as debates encourage people to take action.
Links AnaDafa3tRashwa (Ipaidabribe Egypt) http://anadafa3trashwa.com/ Ipaidabribe India http://ipaidabribe.com/#gsc.tab=0 Jaanagraha Centre for Citizenship and democracy http://www.janaagraha.org/ The Arab Program for Human Rights Activists (APHRA) http://aphra.org.eg/main/en/main.php Farid F. (July, 2013) Egypt in Crisis: A look at Corruption Figures For the Last Two Years, Transparency International. http://blog.transparency.org/2013/07/15/egypt-in-crisis-a-look-at-corruptionfigures-for-the-last-two-years/