1. In Myanmar, the Anti-Corruption Law was enacted on 7th August 2013, and the Anti-Corruption Commission was established on 25th February 2014. It has been 7 years of fighting against corruption as a national responsibility, to implement a clean government and a good administrative system. Now, it has had the achievement of anti-corruption activities to some extent.

2. The commission undertakes three ways of anti-corruption: prevention, investigation, and public awareness of anti-corruption activities. The process of prevention is a preventive process in time before losses occur due to corruption, prevents the deterioration of the image of government institutions and the public's trust, and reduces taking action legally.

3. Section 16 (k) of the Anti-Corruption Law enacts: “Laying down and perform appropriate arrangement for public participation in prevention of corruption, enhancing the integrity of competent authorities and combatting corruption." The commission, in order to be able to build an effective and strong foundation in implementing the process of prevention of corruption, and reduce the small-scale corruption that the public is facing individually. Corruption Prevention Unit-CPU was established in March 2019 as a pilot/advanced project in 14 ministries/organizations teams in March 2019, with the aim of improving the services provided by government institutions in accordance with the needs of the public. And now 37 Ministries/Organizations have established anti-corruption teams.

4. In the policy workshop for anti-corruption groups held on 19-1-2019, three tasks of the CPUs were established. These are (a) to investigate and identify bribery and corruption issues to respective departments; (b) to solve the corruption problems legally and (c) to prevent and control the continuance of corruption. In addition, the following (6) action plans for the Corruption Prevention Units (CPUs) had been formulated at the technical training held from July 24th to 26th, 2019 on the prevention of corruption No. (2/2019)- 

(a) To develop terms of reference (TORs) for the respective CPUs with the approval of respective Union Ministers and Heads of the Institutions;

(b) To develop the Standing Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the prevention of corruption, with the approval of respective Ministers and Heads of the Institutions, and clearly display what the public should be aware of, in a transparent manner at subordinate offices/branches and also inform through Websites;

(c) To undertake CRA (Corruption Risk Assessments) and report to respective Union Ministers/Heads;

(d) To scrutinize business enterprises that are associated with government departments whether they have developed Codes of Conduct to prevent possible corruption and corruption risks and not to accept businesses that have not developed and complied with code of conduct in buying, selling, and construction matters;

(e) To coordinate between the responsible departmental personnel and private enterprises for organizing forums and discussions on preventing corruption with the view to solve problems and misunderstandings between them;

(f) To use Public Feedback Programme (PFP) at subordinate offices under the guidelines of the Union Ministers, through mobile phones, by communicating with citizens individually who receive public services in order to prevent petty corruption effectively.

5. Commission employs The acquisition program (ICT-based Proactive Beneficiary/Citizen Engagement) (PBE) systems in accordance with “To prevent and control the continuance of corruption” in the tasks and “To use Public Feedback Programme (PFP) at subordinate offices under the guidelines of the Union Ministers, through mobile phones, by communicating citizens individually who receive public services in order to prevent petty corruption effectively” in (6) action plans for the Prevention Units (CPUs) Corruption, by sending SMS to people's telephones, asking questions about the service and getting responses. It has been piloted in corruption prevention teams in 10 Union Ministries/Organizations since October 2019.

6. As if the CPU Toolkit process is to obtain public feedback on the processes of government departments/organizations service, and more appropriate rename as the Public Feedback Programme (PFP) changed and used. Commission engage in changing the PFP Web Portal from the Cloud Server to the Local Server in accordance with the rules and regulations enacted by the relevant ministry, use Short Code “1111" for technical testing and the Union Ministry/organizations amend the requirement of amendment including commission in PEP Web Portal using the PEP Web Portal for more convenience, so the activities of feedback using PFP have been temporarily suspended since February 2020.

7. The commission is to do the using the same Short Code number by four telecommunication operators such as MPT, Telenor, MyTel and Ooredoo in Public Feedback Programme-PFP with the cooperation of the Department of Communications, and successfully carry out by using the Short Code "1111" technical testing and coordination with telecommunication operators. There have been using the PFP system since November 1st 2021 in 13 ministries/organizations including the Commission.

8. Corruption not only hinders service activities, but also undermines public trust in government departments, the PFP system is implemented in order to correct weaknesses in time that need to be reformed in relevant departments, reduce petty corruption, build trust between the government organization and the public and support the Corruption Risk Assessment (CRA) process in the respective law, rules, and regulation.

9. The PFP system involves the following 3 steps:

(a) The Data Entry Office - DEO teams in the relevant township branches insert the phone numbers of the people who come to get services into the system;

(b) CPU teams in relevant departments/enterprises send SMS with the short code number “1111” to the phone numbers of the public inserted into the system by the DEO teams, and inquire about the service, solve the needs and suggestions that have been responded to by the public feedback, and present the unsolvable to the Ministry. 

(c) Ministry solves the feedback from the public suggestions and needs.

10. According to the PFP, the Anti-Corruption Commission used SMS on the mobile phone to ask the public who seek services at an office of the department of the relevant ministries via Short Code No “1111” for feedback, and the right replies the citizens also use SMS for their experiences. Based on these responses, be able to perform effectual reforms in time to improve the quality of services in departments of ministries/organizations, so the public who seeks services needs to respond correctly.

11. Based on the public feedback obtained by implementing the PFP program, the factors with requirement can be reformed and the bribery can be known in a short time, and corrected in time by the relevant department, so it will be possible to build more trust between the government and the people. Therefore, the public should make reply to the questions of the Anti-corruption commission and corruption prevention units of the ministries via SMS at Short Code No “1111” and the people are urged to cooperate in the Anti-corruption operations and “Let’s work together to eliminate corruption towards prosperity”

Answer “1111” to improve services

Answer “1111” to remove corruption and promote prosperity

List of references

- Anti-corruption law

- Information fro the Anti-Corruption Commission Website

- The New Light of Myanmar and The Mirror Newspapers