Transparency, Digitalization and Corruption

Administrative transparency, or the condition of an administration made visible and understandable in its processes, is a tool for preventing corruption under two profiles, connected to each other. Firstly, because transparency is a natural antidote to the condition of obscurity, a concealment in which corrupt transactions occur: in fact, corrupt exchange is hidden, because it is concerned in keeping the deviated/illegal interest that it aims to satisfy hidden, as well as the associated distraction/waste of funds. Secondly, because—as a consequence to the above—the public observation ensured by transparency, acts as a deterrent to the execution of such behavior. The chapter intends to explore the different opportunities offered by the “digitalization” processes involving public administrations, for the experimentation and application of corruption prevention tools based on the cognitive capacity thus enabled (big data analytics, open data approach, AI, etc.). The analysis will therefore be enriched by a parallel examination of the critical factors that contribute to the effectiveness of each of the mechanisms taken into consideration, such as, for example, legislative hurdles/ inconsistencies; the organizational structures; the role of stakeholders. From this point of view, the chapter intends to underline that the transparency currently applied does not appear to be directly and linearly connected with the digitalization processes, but is rather the result of coherent policies, which are aware of contextual dimensions.