The Use of Blockchain Technology in Electronic Records Management Systems to Mitigate Corruption in South Africa

Abstract

This paper presents blockchain as an integrated tool that can be used in records management to eliminate public corruption. The paper defines blockchain technology as electronic records management in a networked environment to manage public contract transactions. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many “covidpreneurship” companies were awarded contracts at figures inflated by 200%. In response, the state president instituted a joint committee to investigate the problem and requested investigative authorities to make recommendations to prosecute offenders. This paper argues that the government can stop public funds-related corruption by using an integrated records management system built on blockchain infrastructure. The disruptive technology could be a catalyst to stop Covid-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) suppliers from raising prices 100 times above market value, which has led to criminal investigations. A living-lab methodology was adopted, which allows innovative technology to be experimented with in a social research design. Hence, a software algorithm was applied to mine qualitative data from news feeds and their contents, presented as qualitative text transcripts. The paper contends that the blockchain is vital in protecting the integrity of public contracts and their records management and to ensure that no one can alter the contract or inflate prices. The paper recommends that records officers/managers authenticate and conduct transactional records audits. The contract process should be automated using blockchain. It will eliminate favouritism and nepotism in the award of public tender contracts. The technology can also be used to automatically filter out exorbitant quotations above the market values of items.