Mulheres artificiais contra a corrupção: em busca de legitimidade no Tribunal de Contas da União

Este estudo descreve a busca pela legitimidade de quatro artefatos de tecnologia da informação para auxiliar auditores na vigilância contra fraude e corrupção no Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU). ALICE, ADELE, MONICA e SOFIA são sistemas de Inteligência Artificial (IA) propostos para auxiliar os processos de auditoria no setor público. Um questionário online foi utilizado para reunir as respostas de 60 auditores de todo o Brasil, com entrevistas semiestruturadas com o Diretor de Dados, três desenvolvedores de TI e cinco gerentes de auditoria do TCU selecionados por amostragem intencional (purposive sampling). A pesquisa demonstra que o uso dos sistemas baseados em IA é baixo entre os auditores do TCU devido a um limitado benefício percebido. Embora alguns respondentes reconheçam as vantagens dos sistemas baseados em IA, o seu uso é adiado por uma fraca teorização e difusão em relação ao significado e ao uso desses sistemas dentro da organização; os auditores mostraram uma prioridade no uso dos métodos tradicionais de auditoria em detrimento da inovação digital, restringindo o potencial de controle do uso dos artefatos tecnológicos contra a corrupção.This study depicts the search for legitimacy by four information technology artifacts in helping auditors in the surveillance against fraud and corruption by the Brazilian Supreme Audit Institution (TCU). ALICE, ADELE, MONICA, and SOFIA are Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems proposed to aid auditing processes in the public sector. A web-based survey has been used to gather the responses from 60 auditors across Brazil and semi-structured interviews with the Chief Data Officer, three IT Developers and five TCU Audit Managers selected by purposive sampling. The research finds that the use of AI-based systems is low among auditors at the TCU due to the perceived limited benefit. While some respondents recognized the advantages of the AI-based systems, they are put off by the weak theorization and diffusion regarding the meaning and the use of AI-based systems within the organization; they showed a priority for using traditional auditing methods instead of digital innovation, restricting the potential of anticorruption control by technological artifacts

Empowering Many, Biasing a Few: Generalist Credit Scoring through Large Language Models

In the financial industry, credit scoring is a fundamental element, shaping access to credit and determining the terms of loans for individuals and businesses alike. Traditional credit scoring methods, however, often grapple with challenges such as narrow knowledge scope and isolated evaluation of credit tasks. Our work posits that Large Language Models (LLMs) have great potential for credit scoring tasks, with strong generalization ability across multiple tasks. To systematically explore LLMs for credit scoring, we propose the first open-source comprehensive framework. We curate a novel benchmark covering 9 datasets with 14K samples, tailored for credit assessment and a critical examination of potential biases within LLMs, and the novel instruction tuning data with over 45k samples. We then propose the first Credit and Risk Assessment Large Language Model (CALM) by instruction tuning, tailored to the nuanced demands of various financial risk assessment tasks. We evaluate CALM, and existing state-of-art (SOTA) open source and close source LLMs on the build benchmark. Our empirical results illuminate the capability of LLMs to not only match but surpass conventional models, pointing towards a future where credit scoring can be more inclusive, comprehensive, and unbiased. We contribute to the industry's transformation by sharing our pioneering instruction-tuning datasets, credit and risk assessment LLM, and benchmarks with the research community and the financial industry

Blockchain (Distributed Ledger Technology) Solves VAT Fraud

At the World Economic Forum more than 800 executive and technology experts were asked when they thought a particular “tipping point” would be reached – when would we see a government collect tax with blockchain? The agreed date was 2023 (on average). A full 73% of the respondents however, expected the tipping point to have been reached by 2025. This paper argues that the EU VAT will be an early adopter, if not the earliest adopter of blockchain. There are a number of reasons why. Blockchain will bring substantial efficiencies to VAT collection. It will reduce costs, and build critical inter-governmental trust relationships. Most importantly, blockchain will immediately end revenue losses well in excess of €50 to €60 billion per year in missing trader intra-community fraud (MTIC). Blockchain will also be essential for making the EU Commission’s April 2016 Action Plan on VAT work. Blockchain should be a critical part of the detailed legislative proposal (expected in 2017). This plan will bring in a “definitive VAT system” dealing with intra-EU cross-border trade, which will be based on taxation in the country of destination. This paper predicts that the EU will bring in the “definitive system” on the back of blockchain technology. Blockchain is a revolutionary improvement on any centralized data system. Tax administrations are inherently based upon centralized repositories of taxpayer data. They are prime candidates for the kinds of efficiency improvements that come through blockchain. This is particularly the case for transaction taxes, and even more so for a VAT fraud prevention application, like the Digital Invoice Customs Exchange (DICE), which relies on a real-time exchange of encrypted data

APPLICATION OF INFORMATICS TECHNOLOGIES INTO CUSTOMS: ORIGIN AND TARIFF CODE DIVERSION, IMPACTS AND IDENTIFICATION PROBLEM

The aim of this study is to introduce the effects of tariff code diversion and origin diversion, which are causing loss of tariff revenue, and difficulties in detecting of these diversions. For this purpose, first of all, we mention about customs regimes and especially the import regime process, one of the commonly used regimes in our country. In order to clarify import process, we describe some terminology. Then, we illustrate the phase of establishing of the tariff rate and of non-tariff measures taken to protect the domestic consumers and producers. Being illegal methods referred by companies who want to avoid non-tariff measures taken, the tariff code diversion's and the origin diversion's scope and the challenges of determining the diversions were examined under customs processes (risk analysis, inspection ...)

Blockchain, Bitcoin, and VAT in the GCC: The Missing Trader Example

Blockchain is coming to tax administration and will cause fundamental change. This article considers the potential for blockchain technology as it applies to the introduction of a value added tax in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Blockchain technology disrupts centralized ledgers. Blockchain improves efficiency, security and transparency. Perhaps no centralized ledger system presents more challenges than that of the modern tax administration. The central data storage system of a modern tax authority contains all return, payment, and audit activity for all taxpayers arranged tax-by-tax for three years or longer periods of time. It is likely that blockchain will come first to jurisdictions like the GCC, where there is no pre-existing tax system to be “disrupted.” This is the familiar technological “leap-frog” effect where jurisdictions without an established infrastructure in place can quickly move to new technologies without needing to pass through the entire development process. This is a common occurrence in African economies. For those who are attentive to the coming blockchain disruption there are some precursor developments already visible. In the restaurant sector, Quebec mandates encryption of transaction data, requires the monthly submission of a digital summary report, performs AI-base risk analysis on the aggregate data streams to identify fraud patterns, and completes most audits remotely. Rwanda has gone further. It implemented a DICE compliance regime for all businesses, and requires full transactional data transmission daily (not just summary reports submitted monthly). Rwanda performs the same AI-based risk analysis for fraud detection. In addition, Rwanda appears ready to adopt a cross-border DICE system with neighboring Tanzania

Surveillance Tech in Latin America: Made Abroad, Deployed at Home

Tools to identify, single out, and track us everywhere we go are inherently incompatible with our human rights and civil liberties. Unfortunately, many Latin American governments are eagerly purchasing this technology and ramping up the implementation of mass biometric surveillance — even as the movement to ban technology for biometric surveillance gains traction worldwide. Meanwhile, the companies supplying the tech are flying under the radar, selling surveillance technology that is deployed across Latin America without sufficient transparency or public scrutiny. Our latest report, Surveillance Tech In Latin America: Made Abroad, Deployed At Home, exposes the companies behind these dangerous products and the government policies and practices that are undermining people's rights.As we highlight in the report, most of the biometric surveillance tech deployed in Latin America is acquired directly or indirectly from companies in Asia (Israel, China, and Japan), Europe (U.K. and France), and the U.S. They include AnyVision, Hikvision, Dahua, Cellebrite, Huawei, ZTE, NEC, IDEMIA, and VERINT, among others. These companies have a duty to respect human rights, yet their tools are often implicated in human rights violations perpetrated against civil society globally — journalists, activists, human rights defenders, lawyers, and members of targeted and oppressed groups. Latin America has a long history of persecuting dissidents and people in marginalized communities, and authorities continue to abuse public power. The COVID-19 pandemic has now given governments a new excuse to deploy dangerous surveillance tools in the name of public safety, even as they fail to protect human rights. The bottom line: the backroom deals pursued in countries like Argentina, Brazil, and Ecuador are exposing the public to unacceptable risk. Our report, a research collaboration with our partners at Asociación por los Derechos Civiles (ADC), the Laboratório de Políticas Públicas e Internet (LAPIN), and LaLibre.net (Tecnologías Comunitarias), not only documents the agreements to procure dangerous technology, it also presents case studies to show how the technology is deployed. Finally, we offer recommendations for government, companies, and other stakeholders to increase transparency and prevent rights violations.