Does process reengineering and digitalization eliminate corruption? Examining 'paperless' vehicle clearance at Ghana's port

Corruption occurs globally but is noted as a bottleneck to socioeconomic development in many developing countries. Reengineering of business processes, alongside digitalization, occurs in various developing countries as part of efforts to improve organizational processes and to help in the fight against corruption. But while such initiatives have been associated with some improvements, they have questionable results in the overall control of corruption. Nonetheless, it remains unclear how and why in developing countries corruption persists in spite of reengineered business processes and digitalization. Through an exploratory case of a reengineered digitalized vehicle import clearance process at Ghana’s ports (dubbed by the government as ‘paperless’), we inductively trace complex interdependencies in the situated sociotechnical work system involving information systems, processes, individuals and organizations as well as associated corrupt practices. Our analysis reveals a complex network of cross-cutting interactions, actors and interests underpinning corruption, as well as the creation of new corruption opportunities where digitalization had disrupted old ones. We discuss the implications of our findings and derive explanatory propositions to guide further research