Table A.2 Chapter 5: Individual measures

If this is the case, individuals can be treated impartially, because objective measures provide reliable criteria that different offcials will apply in the same way. Objective rules are applied all the time by postal clerks deciding the cost of mailing a heavy parcel and by social security offcials calculating how much a retired person should receive as a pension.

The extent to which services are suited to the application of objective criteria is contingent. Objectivity is highest when pupils are given computerized tests in which questions must be answered by making choices between alternative replies that can then be scored the same for all the pupils taking an examination. This method is specially suitable for mathematics tests or in an examination confned to basic historical and institutional facts, such as rules for calculating an election winner or the name of a national president in a given year. The evaluation of written essays is less objective, for teachers can differ in their judgments when grading a student’s interpretation of a poem or novel. The most subjective criteria are used by teachers about the classroom behaviour of individual pupils. In countries where corruption does not affect the education system, it is taken for granted that achievements can be fairly evaluated by a mixture of objective and subjective methods. Where corruption in education occurs with some frequency (Table 2 in Chapter 4), maximizing the use of objective criteria in assessing pupils can reduce opportunities for bribes to be paid by anxious parents.

Use computers to reduce contact with public offcials. Because bribery is illegal, the normal method of paying retail bribes is a hand-to-hand transfer of money. This not only requires money to pay a bribe but also a face-to-face meeting between the individual wanting a service and a public offcial who can deliver it at a price. Computerization removes a necessary condition of bribery, personal contact between a citizen and a dishonest public employee. Making a service such as obtaining a licence for an automobile or making an appointment with a doctor available online eliminates the risk of bribery while maintaining the service. Since websites are accessible at any time, a web-based service is also more convenient for users and is less costly to maintain.

Computerization requires the use of impersonal objective criteria for delivering a service. It also standardizes the criteria nationwide through the use of the same computer programmes in all local offces or, as a further check against local corruption, administering a service at a distant regional or national offce. That it also requires people to have access to the internet is no longer a handicap, since more than half the world’s population