Today, ministers are meeting under the Saudi Group of 20 presidency to discuss international cooperation to fight corruption. On the agenda will be how harness the new information and communications technologies (ICT) to reduce and eliminate corruption in the era of COVID-19.

Even before the pandemic, it was estimated that the world spends over US$7 trillion on health services a year, of which 10–25 percent is lost directly through corruption (see “Corruption in global health: The open secret”, The Lancet, Nov. 27, 2019)

In middle income countries such as Indonesia, the World Bank estimates that on average 13 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) is spent on government purchases, and in some countries, like Vietnam, up to 20 percent. With corruption rife in public services, it is not surprising that most ASEAN countries, including Indonesia, continue to hover around the middle of Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index.