Abstract
Digitalisation is often framed as a means of tackling corruption in the public sector by limiting opportunities for misconduct, reducing discretionary decision-making, and strengthening oversight through digital trails. Yet, as recent scholarship notes, digital tools may also generate new forms of abuse or obscure existing practices. This paper applies Flyverbom’s (2019) concept of the digital prism to examine how corruption and anti-corruption are refracted through digital infrastructures in Poland. Based on 25 interviews with local and regional public servants, we find that digital systems can constrain corruption through automation, monitoring, and data traceability, but that their partial implementation, selective archiving, and lack of interoperability open new vulnerabilities. Our analysis shows that digitalisation does not eliminate corruption but reshapes its manifestations, simultaneously deterring some practices while enabling others. We argue that effective anti-corruption in the digital age requires not only technological solutions but also strong institutions and integrity frameworks.