Corruption in Spain faces a new enemy: Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain
One of the biggest problems that Spain has is the high levels of corruption that exist in the government. Public officials are tempted to take advantage and take advantage of their posts for personal gain, instead of using resources for the country's progress. Therefore, in the country have decided to rely on new technologies to solve this problem.
After several scandals in the public administration occurred during the last decade, the European nation has worked actively to fight against corruption. Among the efforts to achieve this objective can be counted the reform to anticorruption laws and the development of an Artificial Intelligence (IA), based on Blockchain.
The introduction of this new element can be very useful, since the IA based on the chain of blocks could provide transparency in the financing of public works, which can be considered as a preventive measure against corruption.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), this would avoid several problems, such as reducing the quality of public services, limiting opportunities for private development and low confidence in public institutions.
The president of the OECD, Angel Gurría, clarified that "integrity, transparency and the fight against corruption must be part of the culture. They have to be taught as fundamental values, "reports CoinCrispy .
This comes to mind after, in the last installment of Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index, the Iberian country presented a drop of 8 points, placing it among the lowest positions in the entire European Union.
However, this fall is not surprising when one considers that between July 2015 and September 2016, there were a total of 1,378 officials who were prosecuted for corruption, of whom 29 were convicted by the Supreme Court of Spain. Those who were sentenced have to pay a penalty of 351 years in prison; not only for crimes such as tax evasion and bribery, but for money laundering and fraud.
The Court also investigated one of the most important political parties in Spain, the Popular Party (PP). The judicial authorities assure that the members of the party participated in "an authentic and efficient system of institutional corruption through mechanisms to manipulate public tenders at the national, regional and local levels".
That is why the incorporation of block chains and Artificial Intelligence represents a key point for the fight against corruption. In addition, this measure would help Spain to meet the goals of the European Union in terms of the development of these technological innovations.
As part of the European Blockchain Partenership, the Iberian country is committed to developing AI applications and block chains that can be useful for the entire continent in the fight against corruption.
Although democracy is considered by most governments as the "perfect" political system, it is not immune to human error. People are not perfect, therefore, the possibility that some corrupt ruler comes to power is always present.
In these cases, it is assumed that the country's institutions must ensure that corruption does not take over the public administration. But in some cases, their efforts are not enough. Therefore, the States should rely more on the new technological developments, such as the IA and Blockchain, to prevent these bad practices from proliferating and lasting in the government of the country.