The challenge
Oil-rich Papua New Guinea ranked 139 out of 168 in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index in 2015. Corruption severely hinders development in a country where 37% of the population lives below the poverty line.
The solution
We helped the UN’s Governance & Anti-corruption unit develop and structure an innovative service, which would allow citizens to report corruption safely without fear of reprisal. This led to the design of a new mobile messaging service, which provides a safe channel for citizens to report corrupt practices anonymously via text message. All reported cases are referred to the relevant state bodies for internal audit and further investigation.
The outcome
- More than 21,000 text messages had been received from over 6,000 different users
- 251 cases of alleged corruption are under investigation by the Internal Audit and Compliance Division as a result of the initiative
- Two public officials in Papua New Guinea have been arrested in connection with the mismanagement of more than US$2 million, and five more are awaiting court decisions relating to corruption charges