“When people of integrity rise, corruption fails”

Narayan Adhikari is the director and co-founder of Nepal and Sanjita Pant is the program and training manager at the Accountability Lab. In conversation with Eresh Omar Jamal on The Daily Star, they discuss Accountability Lab’s Icon of Integrity initiative, which recognizes and rewards public officials (in 15 countries), nominated by citizens and others, for demonstrating exceptional integrity in their work and personal lives. It is an attempt to address the perception of widespread corruption among civil servants in these countries and to promote greater integrity in the profession.

What motivated you to create the Accountability Lab and the Integrity Icon initiative?

Narayan Adhikari (NA): When we started the Accountability Lab, we wanted to do something positive, inspiring, innovative and creative, especially when talking about work around promoting good governance. When I worked in various youth campaigns, we did a lot of anti-corruption events. But the results were not satisfactory because if you keep pointing fingers at others, they will do the same. You are not creating an environment of trust to create something that is more valuable to society. That’s when we came up with the idea for the Integrity Icon.

Integrity Icon aims to build an ecosystem of accountability and integrity in governance by promoting individuals in public service – identifying them, harnessing their innovative ways, harnessing the power of their personal honesty and integrity as role models to inspire more public officials, citizens and the younger generation. Then we can truly have a system of government that works for the people – one that is inclusive, effective, efficient and citizen-centric.

What positive results have you seen from the Integrity Icon initiative?

Sanjeeta Pant (SP): One positive outcome is how the icons themselves have been able to grow within their organizations or departments. When you talk about anti-corruption in governance, it’s a pretty big problem. There are many interesting stories that have come out from all over, about how these icons have been promoted within their organizations because of this recognition, or given certain responsibilities that are related to the transparency and accountability of their organizations, because they are perceived as “ Icons of Integrity’.

The general perception of most people about the civil service in many of the South Asian and African countries where we primarily work is that the government is inefficient and corrupt. Many people do not want to enter the civil service. We want to change this perception, so we identify young people who want to go and work with these icons to see for themselves – and often come back inspired. Because what we don’t realize is that sometimes civil servants work in very difficult circumstances, with limited resources. Many people think that this is how they can justify their corruption. But there are people who still show up for their jobs who actually sacrifice a lot to do their job with integrity. Our job is to create that ecosystem – as well as change the norms and behaviors around what the civil service should look like.

What were some of the initial challenges you saw?

WHAT: Many people were skeptical about the idea. Of course we need skepticism – it’s good for healthy conversation. But even governments asked questions like, “Do you think you’ll find someone with integrity?” First, people doubted whether we would find anyone with integrity; second, even if we did, they would not continue their good behavior. Third, the government will push back. Finally, it won’t make any difference because the whole system is so corrupt and bad.

Our conviction was, of course, that the system was broken and corrupt. But if you want to bring change, you have to disrupt the system. And the Integrity Icon project to some extent disrupts the process of fighting corruption in government.

How does your initiative motivate people who are in public service?

WHAT: For many people, finding a government job may be a last resort. But for some people, it is always the first choice. But why do they want to get a government job? As the job is nice, they get many opportunities in the government like getting scholarships for education. And finally they get a good pension. So people’s motivation for going into government isn’t really to make a difference and to do their job honestly. After they retire, they may own a big house, make a lot of money, but oftentimes they are not really satisfied and are restless because they know deep down that they have done nothing but accumulate more wealth.

What we’re saying is, imagine: after you retire, what would you like to be remembered for? Do you want to think, “Amazing, I have five houses and cars and send my kids to foreign universities”? Or would you like to be remembered as a person of integrity?

Compared to other jobs, the salary and benefits of government jobs are also not bad. It’s just a matter of how you manage your personal life. Some say they have a low salary and are therefore corrupt. But our Icons of Integrity go and explain to them, “Look, if you do your job honestly, with the perks and facilities you get from a government job, in five years you’ll be buying a small car with white money. In maybe 8 – 10 years you can buy a house because you can get a soft loan from the government and you will have money to pay your children’s school fees. That’s how I did it, without corruption.

If you can do all that, what else do you need? Unless you make a bad personal choice, you don’t need to engage in corrupt activities. Integrity is not just about how you do your job; it’s also about how you manage your personal life.

You have now expanded the Integrity Icon initiative to 15 countries. How does this work from country to country?

WHAT: We mainly share our experience and process, but we are also very open to incorporating the local context. The public service system is different everywhere and the context is also not the same. So the main idea is to find the right people who are honest and inspiring, highlight them, engage them and really try to make our management system transparent and efficient.

SP: And sometimes you just need one or two people. We have seen this in many cases including with the Nepal Electricity Authority where we had a problem with load sharing for almost two decades due to a lot of corruption and mismanagement. Then we only saw one guy come in and he changed it almost overnight. It goes to show that sometimes if you have the right person doing the right thing, it can really turn the tide.

Do you think this initiative will be relevant here in Bangladesh?

WHAT: I would really like to see the integrity icon in Bangladesh. It’s not really about ‘naming and shaming’, it’s actually about ‘naming and celebrating’. And I see that there is great potential in Bangladesh, with many young people and a vibrant civil society and media. Bangladesh is a special country with a long and varied history of bureaucracy. And there are also many challenges. To some extent, this initiative could help overcome them; because when people of integrity begin to rise, corruption fails.