Community-Driven Innovation

RevelaGov

Fighting corruption through civilian-led tracking of government transactions

Team Lead

Rafael dos Anjos

Our Solution

RevelaGov

Tagline

Using IA, big data and citizen participation to reduce government corruption

Pitch us on your solution

The corruption cost is more than $50 billions per year just to brazilian society, mainly affecting the poorly portion of population that need public basic services.

To solve this problem, we need to attack both governmental corruption and the corruption of society.

1) Using IA and big data to identify automatically evidences of irregularities in public administration. Our 9 robots have already identified more than 1 million signs of irregularity just in the cities of São Paulo state.

2) App that allows reward for reporting social corruption (eg: fraud in the installation of electricity, internet or cable TV; tax fraud, solicitation of bribery,...) without identifying whistleblower.

Applying the 2 solutions to the population, we expect:
- start to reverse the cultural spiral that corruption pays off and is something acceptable.
- improving the quality of basic public services.

Film your elevator pitch

What is the problem you are solving?

According to the CGU (Federal Comptroller General's Office) of Brazil, 4 in 5 municipalities inspected show serious or medium irregularities, which indicate the occurrence of deviations of federal public resources. The Getúlio Vargas Foundation under study has pointed out that from 1% to 4% of Brazilian GDP are lost every year due to corruption practices, and the reduction of only 10% in the level of corruption and administrative improbability in Brazil, would increase Brazilian per capita income by 50% in 25 years.

According to IBGE survey, Brazil has more than 54 million people living in poverty, of which 15 million are in extreme poverty. This population depends on all basic public services and is the most affected by corruption.

The society after electing its rulers can not even keep track of how the resources of their city and state are being used. Public account inspection insists on moving away from technological tools, with all inspection done at random, with its board being still indicated by the politicians that it should inspected. Government corruption only reflects behavior on the part of society that insists on taking advantage of the lack of enforcement and laws with soft punishments.

Who are you serving?

The population most affected by corruption is certainly not the population that will make the most use of our platform and app.
The platform can be used both by the public administration (internal control) and by organized civil society, as well as control and inspection bodies to automatically identify and prevent irregularities in public administration, thus avoiding immense losses for public coffers.
The app is to be used for the population to denounce with just 2 clicks (+ photos and videos) the irregularities that have been committed and with that creating a feeling of greater supervision and that any irregularity can be caught and punishable.

What is your solution?

Project uses big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced statistics for:

1.Prevention and identification of evidence of practices of administrative impropriety and corruption. The 9 robots already developed mapped more than 1 million irregularities in the municipal public administrations, identifying from the contracting of punished suppliers to privileged payments.

2.Acceleration of the process of analysis of complaints of administrative improbity and corruption;
3.Acceleration of the amount of complaints of irregularities committed by the company through application with georeferencing that allows the reward for denunciation without the identification of the denouncer. The denunciations only go to those responsible for monitoring them, but statistics are made available to the population as a form of social pressure to increase inspection and punishment of irregularities.
4.Identification of best management practices, transparency and control of public resources between municipalities

Select only the most relevant.

Make government and other institutions more accountable, transparent, and responsive to citizen feedback
Ensure all citizens can overcome barriers to civic participation and inclusion

Where is your solution team headquartered?

Ribeirão Preto - Conquista, Ribeirão Preto - SP, Brasil

Our solution's stage of development:

Pilot

Select one of the below:

New technology

Describe what makes your solution innovative.

We have developed a digital platform that surpasses the current level and capacity of fiscalization of public financial commitments, enabling the participation of the population in the monitoring of contracting.
In addition, we are developing an app that will revolutionize social surveillance capability, with each citizen contributing to a country with fewer irregularities from both civil society and government.
We do not know of any solution in this sense already implemented in the world.

Describe the core technology that your solution utilizes.

We are using AI, big data and citizen participation to reduce government corruption and society irregularities.

Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:

Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Big Data

Why do you expect your solution to address the problem?

We already have huge evidences that our solution can help to address corruption problem. The evidence comes from a visit to more than 40 mayors, 4 counselors and directors of court of accounts, presentations and pilots made with Anti-corruption NGOs, D.A. Offices and federal police. More than 1 million cases of irregularities coud have been avoid in the last 10 years with the use of RevelaGov.

According to the Brazil CGU (Federal Comptroller General's Office), 4 out of 5 inspected municipalities present serious or average irregularities, which indicate the occurrence of deviations from federal public resources. In a study of 2017, FIESP estimated this loss in 2.3% of the national GDP (over 100 billion reais). Only as a basis for comparison, the Brazilian government invests approximately 27 billion reais in the Bolsa Familia every year to serve more than 14 million families in one of the largest income supplementation programs in the world. According to a study by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, the reduction of only 10% in the level of corruption and administrative improbability in Brazil would increase Brazilian per capita income by 50% in 25 years. Several international studies claim that corrupt hiring practices remain beyond the reach of monitoring society, public administration control bodies, and academic studies for lack of treated and correlated data.

The project will directly benefit the less favored population that depends on the public services of these municipalities.

Select the key characteristics of the population your solution serves.

Very Poor/Poor
Low-Income
Middle-Income
Persons with Disabilities

In which countries do you currently operate?

Brazil

In which countries will you be operating within the next year?

Brazil

How many people are you currently serving with your solution? How many will you be serving in one year? How about in five years?

We are serving a population of 600.000 nowaday, but not in full pontential. Currently, only NGOs from the city of Ribeirão Preto are using RevelaGov to monitor local public administration and avoid irregularities. But politicians still seem to feel threatened to use the platform. Even without the hiring of the municipal administrations, we could have a complete impact if we were able to enable the platform's liberation for the population, the councilors' chamber, the public ministry and the federal police.

We also tested the solution at an open anti-corruption event "10 days of fighting corruption in Ribeirão Preto" with the support of the main local anticorruption entities (more than 10). The event was a success, with coverage of all local media and strong participation of the population. More than 1500 people entered the platform to oversee the local government and make their complaint based on the platform data. We chose the city of Ribeirão Preto because 2 of its last 4 mayors are imprisoned for corruption scandals

In 1 year we hope to serve 30 millions ( we already have data to impact that) and in 5 year at least 80 millions.

What are your goals within the next year and within the next five years?

Our main goal is to positively impact 80 million people by the end of 2020.

Our platform of automatic identification of irregularities is made for public management and Brazilian laws. It is ready, needing to be expanded to other states in Brazil. In 5 years it will be used in all Brazil states.
Our reporting reward app, which is in development, can be quickly scaled up and used anywhere in the world.

What are the barriers that currently exist for you to accomplish your goals for the next year and for the next five years?

The main barrier to next year's goal is fundraising.

How are you planning to overcome these barriers?

To overcome the barrier we are writing our project together with NGOs and public entities in calls for public transparency and the fight against corruption.

The Solve can be a big step to overcome this barrier.

https://www.revelagov.com.br/

If you have additional video, provide a YouTube or Vimeo link to your video here:

Select an option below:

Hybrid of for-profit and nonprofit

How many people work on your solution team?

3 full-time

4 part-time

For how many years have you been working on your solution?

5 years

Why are you and your team best-placed to deliver this solution?

Rafael is Prof. Dr. in public administration and lawyer, having already been municipal director. His focus on masters and doctorates was related to the treatment of public data using technology to improve public management.

André is a data scientist with more than 15 years of experience in programming and using big data and artificial intelligence. His master's degree focuses on the systemic mapping of corruption in public procurement.

I am an engineer and have been for 12 years executive of big companies in areas like Procurement, Operations and finances, developing diverse projects.
Tais is also an engineer and has worked for more than 10 years as an executive at large companies in the area such as new business, sales and customer experience.
The project needs and our team has complementary background that this project requires.

With what organizations are you currently partnering, if any? How are you working with them?

Follow below the institutions that were at some point or that are still partners of our project:

- Instituto Ribeirão 2030 is piloting the solution and using their capital and resources to support the deployments.

- Frente Cívica is piloting the solution.

- Observatório Social de Ribeirão Preto is piloting the solution.

- Observatório Social de São Caetano do Sul is piloting the solution.

- Instituto não aceito corrupção was a partner in a corruption-fighting event that featured more than 1,500 users on our platform

- Ministério Público de São Paulo is piloting the solution and was a partner in a corruption-fighting event that featured more than 1,500 users on our platform.

What is your business model?

Value Proposition:

- Make governments more accountable, transparent, and responsive to citizen feedback.

- Empowering society in the fight against corruption

Revenue: SaaS to cities administration and NGOs, % over reward, data and judicial expertise.

What is your path to financial sustainability?

For the sustainability of the project, the platform will be provided at low cost to the Municipal Executive and Legislative Branches. The platform will provide the Executive Branch (municipal and state) with a powerful tool for internal control, aid for purchasing and decision making, as well as for the Legislative Branch to provide a tool to aid decision-making and control of Executive Branch. To guarantee the sustainability of the project, judicial expertise will also be offered, a report on the risk of payment from public agencies and strategic advice based on data. Judicial expertise will accelerate operations for Public Prosecution and Police, risk-of-payment reports will bring transparency to companies participating in public bids, and strategic advisory services will assist decisions of NGOs, corporations, parties, and organized civil society entities.
The project should only be self-sustaining between 18 and 24 months, requiring during this period 500 thousand dollars to execute its schedule of activities, which among others have planned free access on a web platform for the population and expansion of coverage for the remaining states and federal government, which will require the development of more than a hundred robots of extraction, treatment and data organization.

Why are you applying to Solve?

Our main current barrier is to find a way to make our project financially sustainable in the medium term and rapidly scale it not only in Brazil but also in other countries.

We believe that being a Solver we will have support of experts, partnerships and conections to overcame these barriers.

What types of connections and partnerships would be most catalytic for your solution?

Funding and revenue model
Talent or board members
Media and speaking opportunities

If you would like to apply for the AI Innovations Prize, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution. If you are not already using AI in your solution, explain why it is necessary for your solution to be successful and how you plan to incorporate it.

We will use the prize to develop another 6 robots of automatic identification of public irregularities and to advance in other Brazilian states.
With the award we can also terminate our reward app for reporting without the complainant.