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Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

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Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#21

Post by tree_of_item »

asimov42 wrote: post #4

I've thought about this a lot for India as well. To be realistic we would need unprecedented levels of transparency to get the amount of data needed to get usable results. With the amount of nepotism around even constructing a simple network of party heads of each state and related companies and contracts awarded for public work would be valuable. At this stage we really should think of it more in terms of documentin…

> At this stage we really should think of it more in terms of documenting corruption rather than stopping corruption.

This is a very good point; often I see people block this sort of discussion by asking "Well, what are you gonna do about it??" Taking this point of view sidesteps that question.

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#24

Post by denzil_correa »

asimov42 wrote: post #4

I've thought about this a lot for India as well. To be realistic we would need unprecedented levels of transparency to get the amount of data needed to get usable results. With the amount of nepotism around even constructing a simple network of party heads of each state and related companies and contracts awarded for public work would be valuable. At this stage we really should think of it more in terms of documentin…

I have always told the same about India. We need to make everything accessible WITHOUT the need of a Right to Information query. Almost every query that is made via RTI should be accessible within a few clicks.

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#25

Post by vkou »

fredguth wrote: post #19
gtirloni wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to explain the project in much greater detail: https://www.catarse.me/serenata (Portuguese only) Curiously, Google Translate doesn't seem to understand this page's content and fails to translate it here.

The idea seems to be fighting a specific kind of corruption. Congressmen have an office budget and many use invalid or suspicious receipts to justify expenses. The idea is to use bots to analyze and red flag suspicious receipts and then use evidence as proof in justice.

This seems to be an almost entirely pointless endeavor. The problem with corruption isn't Billy expensing $5,000 of wine, and a visit to the strip club.

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#26

Post by jalayir »

denzil_correa wrote: post #24
asimov42 wrote: post #4

I've thought about this a lot for India as well. To be realistic we would need unprecedented levels of transparency to get the amount of data needed to get usable results. With the amount of nepotism around even constructing a simple network of party heads of each state and related companies and contracts awarded for public work would be valuable. At this stage we really should think of it more in terms of documentin…

I have always told the same about India. We need to make everything accessible WITHOUT the need of a Right to Information query. Almost every query that is made via RTI should be accessible within a few clicks.

Can we automate the creation of RTI requests using NLP, and autonomously analyze the results?

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#27

Post by denzil_correa »

jalayir wrote: post #26
denzil_correa wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have always told the same about India. We need to make everything accessible WITHOUT the need of a Right to Information query. Almost every query that is made via RTI should be accessible within a few clicks.

Can we automate the creation of RTI requests using NLP, and autonomously analyze the results?

The requests are not a problem, the availability of data is.

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#29

Post by arcticfox »

jkkorn wrote: post #9
rafinha wrote: post #6

Doomed to fail. There won't be enough non-corruption data for discrimination.

This. Machine learning and datascience are only as good as the quality of the data fed into the machine. Although the brazilian federal police has been working nonstop, we'd be hardpressed to expect a .csv journaling political shenanigans. This project has my support nonetheless :)

This scene from Tropa de Elite always makes me laugh and cry (paraphrased)...

---

Honest Policeman: I've been doing the stats, and with the additional bodies found in our district today...

Police Captain to Dishonest Policeman: What do you mean, bodies in our district?! I thought I told you to take care of them.

Dishonest Policeman: I swear I moved the bodies to the neighboring district like you said, boss. Those bastards must have moved them back!

Re: Fighting Corruption in Brazil with Machine Learning

#30

Post by joe_the_user »

dmix wrote: post #2

The maze of shell companies and indirect associations would make it relatively easily to bypass automated scrutiny. But it's an interesting idea I've thought a lot about. It would be great to automatically analyze things such as government contracts and the politicians who were involved in getting it voted in. But you'd need a data source of the social network graphs of those who are behind organizations - which coul…

To get conviction or sanctions, one generally needs something definite. But rules-of-thumb and appearances are useful as a way to know where to begin investigating.

However, the problem with a public system of rules of thumb is that it can be used by the wrong-doers to hide themselves.

The US bank system scans the cash activity of businesses to spot money laundering and other activity. If a money launder had the rules for what transaction pattern was going to be red-flagged, they could structure their transactions pattern to not be flagged while continuing to launder money.

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