Preventing Corruption with a Knowledge Management Approach: An Experience from the Field

This paper aims at contributing to the debate on KM flow charts and good practices in local authorities (Leao Lyrio et. al, 2018; K North et. al, 2018) through a case study of a very specific area: Abruzzo region in Italy (Sargiacomo et. al, 2015). Abruzzo is a region situated in the center of Italy that in the last 3 decades has been affected by numerous scandals about bribery and corruption in the public sector including increased refunds such as "clientopoli" (1990s scandal) or healthcare with Sanitopoli (2000s scandal), and post-emergency recovery scandals (L’Aquila Earthquake, 2009). While the political system was affected by tragic events, Managers of the public body continue to hardly work aim to achieve the creation of public value (Deidda Gagliardo, 2015). Through a shift in mind and actions driven by KM flow charts and toolkits (Tiwana, 2000; Carrillo et al. 2006), the Abruzzo Government shifted from the dark side of the moon to the Italian benchmark on the fight against Bribery and corruption as certified by the Italian authority against bribery and corruption (ANAC, 2019). This paper will describe the events that occurred in the last decades demonstrating that the application of good practices evidenced in KM literature (Abualoush et. al, 2018) have produced enormous benefits on the entire system as confirmed by semi-structured interviews conducted with Abruzzo's managers and political leaders. Moreover, this case study will also include the personal experience that two of the authors had on rebuilding of the accountability regarding the Abruzzo Region after the outbreak of the scandals.