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[av_heading heading=’FAITH, HOPE & CHARITY ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY IKE SEĆERES
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SIMPLY put, discretion is one of the root causes of corruption.
To put it another way, there is not likely to be corruption where there is no discretion.
Looking at it another way, office automation is one way to remove discretion and in doing so, it could also prevent corruption.
Take note that I only said that it would prevent corruption; I did not say that it would remove corruption. I said that because corruption is the result of either sin or wrongdoing, and as we know it, sin or wrongdoing, could not be removed by a human invention such as automation.
However, suffice it to say that a well planned automation program would indeed make it very difficult for perpetrators of corruption to prosper.
But first, let us go back to the basics. Looking at it from a strictly legalistic point of view, graft is the outcome of the intrusion of corruption.
Strictly speaking, there would be no graft if there is no corruption. Based on this definition, graft could only happen if someone tries to corrupt a decision maker to make a favorable decision because of a bribe.
Summarizing this sequence, graft starts with a bribe that leads to the corruption of a decision maker. Looking at it from a strictly technical standpoint however, the decision maker could not do anything even if he is offered a bribe, simply because an automated system would not allow him to do anything, not unless he has the authority to override the system.
Even as we speak, the technologies that would enable the government agencies to automate their office systems are already available in the market, and there is no argument that these systems could work if and when properly installed.
Be that as it may, it is very difficult to understand why up to now; there are still many government agencies that would refuse to automate their systems, for one reason or another. Whatever these reasons might be, I would hate to think that one of the probable reasons is that one way or the other, there could be some syndicates within some government agencies that would not hesitate to sabotage the automation so that they would not lose their discretionary powers.
Lest I be accused of being too paranoid, I am willing to say that I have heard of so many government systems die, simply because the users (who are employees themselves) have made sure that these systems would never ever work.
Well, they might have one that before, but it seems that they would no longer be able to do that now, because the technologies have already changed.
Not only that, everything else has changed, and it is a whole new world, so to speak. You could say as a figure of speech that while we were sleeping, what used to be hosted in Local Area Networks (LANs) within in premise data centers have now all practically moved to the cloud, and hey, it is just starting!
In theory, any agency will now be able to have one or more automated systems in the cloud, whatever is most important. As a matter of fact, it is now possible for any agency to have most of its automated system in the cloud, so much so that it would no longer require an in premise server, period.
What that means is that any agency could now take advantage of their procurement options in such a way that they could afford, because of certain government agencies. For most of these agencies that I am talking about, money would not seem to be a problem because from their perspective, itās worth whatever money they have if they could save a life or defend their country.
Nowadays, almost everything could be automated so much so that we do not only hear about office automation, because we also hear about home automation, factory automation and farm automation, among others.
Seeing a lot of movies wherein the villains would use technologies to try and destroy society, I could only wish that the technical people of our time would use their computer skills for good, in such a way that mankind would be able to make life better for everyone. Idealistic as it may sound; the internet is actually full of content about technology for good in general, and information and communications technology (ICT) in particular.
On one hand, automation could decrease corruption but aside from that, automation could also increase production, so much so that mankind may never ever be lacking in food at any given time, provided of course that greed will not escalate where mankind would find itself.
In the most ideal of all scenarios, wealth would be so abundant so much so that the lack of scarcity would hopefully reduce the occurrence of greed. Well, for whatever it is worth, we could only hope that those who are greedy would vent their greed elsewhere, or perhaps they could just find some other endeavors where they could channel their badness elsewhere. (iseneres@yahoo.com)/PN
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