Making Corruption Risk Visible Interview with Dr Mária Temesi and László Kocsis, creators of the KAR-MAP system

Abstract

In public administration, the prevention of corruption has become not merely a legal or ethical issue but one of the central challenges of digital governance. The convergence of artificial intelligence, data-driven decision-making, and integrity management marks a new era in public service, in which data and algorithms function not as instruments of control, but as tools for trust and organisational learning.

Linked to the February 2026 thematic issue of Belügyi Szemle focusing on corruption prevention and integrity management, this interview presents a domestically developed innovation that bridges the traditional legal–ethical approach and modern, data-driven risk management.

KAR-MAP (Corruption Risk Identification System – Monitoring, Analytics, Prevention) elevates position- and job-based corruption exposure analysis (hereinafter: position-based analysis) to a new level by providing AI-supported, objective, and comparable assessments based on the structured analysis of corruption risk factors (CRF1–CRF20), thereby supporting human resources, control, and integrity management decision-making.

The system is built on data from a nationwide survey conducted under the coordination of the Ministry of Interior within the framework of the 2024–2025 National Anti-Corruption Strategy (NACS). Processing the results of data collection covering more than 69,000 positions posed significant analytical challenges, while simultaneously opening new perspectives in governmental integrity management by establishing the foundations of a unified and comparable risk analysis. A key metric of the system is the Corruption Exposure Composite Index (CECI), a quantitative summary indicator of position-based analysis that underpins the nationwide CECI map used for visualisation.

The development of KAR-MAP aligns with Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 of the European Parliament and of the Council (the AI Act) and with Act LXXV of 2025, the Hungarian Artificial Intelligence Act, which regulate the responsible, ethical, and secure use of artificial intelligence within both the European Union and the Hungarian public sector. The system’s architecture was designed from the outset to comply with these regulatory requirements and to allow for future development with learning algorithms and predictive analytical models.

Beyond measuring corruption risk exposure, KAR-MAP also serves prevention objectives by strengthening HR processes, decision support, and control functions, while providing a data structure compatible with international standards (OECD, UNODC), thereby enabling international comparability.

In the following interview, Dr Mária Temesi and László Kocsis, the creators of the system, explain how technology can become a key instrument in public administration not only for corruption prevention, but also for organisational learning and transparency.