Giving Compass' Take:

• Adele Peters covers the new digital taxation platform that cuts down corruption in the Congo by letting citizens pay taxes directly.

• What are some of the other contributing factors to corruption among government officials? How can a regulated salary improve these conditions?

• Learn about what everyone gets wrong about corruption.

Until recently, when someone paid taxes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the tax collector might have pocketed some of the money. One of the poorest countries in the world, the DRC is also one of the most corrupt: In one recent survey, 80% of citizens said that they’d paid a bribe or “given a gift” within the last year to get basic public services from the police, schools, health clinics, utilities, or to get an ID.

A new e-government platform is trying to change that culture by making government processes digital for the first time. The new platform, rather than a potentially corrupt official, calculates what someone owes in taxes or to register the birth of a child, and when someone makes a digital payment, they get a receipt on their mobile phone.

It’s only one piece of the solution, since there are also more fundamental challenges—officials often aren’t regularly paid, with the assumption that they’ll earn a living through corruption. “You have government officials in the bureaucracy that seldom get paid a salary, and then it becomes usual for everyone, as well as accepted for everyone, that they can accept so-called ‘administrative fees,'” Karlsen says. As a next step, the government will need to begin automatic salary payments for the first time, something that can also happen through the system.

Read the full article about the digital system that fights corruption in the Congo by Adele Peters at Fast Company.