Artificial Intelligence and Anti-Corruption: Understanding Cameroon’s Flagship Initiative

Delegates from 25 anti-corruption agencies from 20 Commonwealth African countries are currently meeting in Yaounde within the framework of the 16th Commonwealth Regional Conference of Heads of Anti-Corruption Agencies in Africa. Deliberations are holding under the theme, “Deploying Artificial Intelligence in the Fight Against Corruption in Commonwealth Africa.” This explains why at the start of deliberations after the opening ceremony, a presentation was done on, “Artificial Intelligence and Anti- Corruption: The role of PATNUC”, by the National Coordinator of the Project for the Acceleration of Digital Transformation in Cameroon (PATNUC), Dr Windfred Mfuh Fuaye Kenji. The session was chaired by the Director General of Botswana’s Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime, Makgekgenene Bitlhale. In the face technological evolution which is shaping economies and the decision-making process, the presentation of the National Coordinator of the project, a senior staff at the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, focused on four key areas. They included the principles of Artificial Intelligence, how it can be harnessed in the fight against corruption, as well as the collective challenge of using AI for anti-corruption. As a result, PATNUC, a project funded by the World Bank which commenced in 2023 with the main mission of creating accelerators for digital transformation in Cameroon was presented as a case in point. Cameroon, he said, has taken bold steps in its journey of incorporating the positive use of AI, through the wide scale digitalisation of public services, important laws enacted and others in full gestation, and the national AI policy/framework that is currently being finalised. On specifically how PATNUC is being used to combat corruption, Dr Windfred Mfuh explained six main benefits after the creation of the E-Voucher platform. To this effect, he cited the efficient identification of beneficiaries to avoid ghost...