Arresting the pandemic of corruption
Economic Times, August 29, 2011
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By Pradeep S Mehta
Anti-corruption set-ups at
the state and district levels will strengthen the Centre’s
efforts for an effective Lokpal
In the epic Mahabharata, when
Draupadi was being disrobed, the blind king Dhritarashtra
'watched' it silently and unashamedly. He did not stop
Dushashan from this dastardly act, as the crown prince
Duryodhan was egging him on. Bhishma Pitamah sat still with
deafening silence, and the wise minister Vidur protested
when Draupadi shouted in anger.
We see a similar drama unfolding, when the head of
government claims total honesty but does not respond to the
charge that all this was happening right under his nose.
Whether it was the 2G scam or the Commonwealth Games or the
cash-for-votes, can the perception of people change that it
did not involve the highest authority in the country?
This is why the support for the Anna Hazare movement was
spontaneous. People are hoping that the movement will bring
about better governance in the country. If the change has to
happen at the highest level through a
constitutionally-empowered Lokpal, surely it will have a
trickle-down effect on the morass that we see prevailing in
our administrative system.
Corruption has now become a part of our DNA and is now a
pandemic. Changing that will take a few generations, but we
have to begin now.
The issues are not just about getting a ration card or
whatever without greasing palms, but also addressing the
distortions that exist in the system that have spillover
impacts on the society and the economy. Today, nearly all
the kamdhenu posts in the country are auctioned: be it a
policeman's or an engineer's or a regional transport
officer's position, or a district food supply officer's
post.
To amplify the systemic issues, the public distribution
system is one such glaring example. Research shows that only
10% of the benefits accrue to the poor, while leakages are
about 43%, and the rest goes to the inefficient government
system.
Because the system feeds on political patronage and, hence,
all parties are together in supporting it like the caste
reservation system. Therefore, the incentive to politicians
to support such reforms is poor.
"Central government is proposing to introduce National Food
Security law that would provide statutory framework to
ensure food security for alla¦ But the law will be rendered
futile like PDS if it does not come up with an appropriate
mechanism for its implementation.
PDS is synonymous with corruption," says Justice D P Wadhwa
in the overview chapter of the report of the Central
Vigilance Committee on PDS that submitted its report to the
Supreme Court in September 2009.
"....there is a web of corruption woven around the PDS by
politicians, bureaucrats, transporters and officials of the
Food Supplies Department and Civil Supplies Corporation.
They are shameless people having no inhibition depriving the
poor of their food."
Another issue that has been raised in the current debate is
whether the Lokpal institution itself cannot be corrupted.
There is a distinct possibility of this. One instance in my
own knowledge some time in early 1980s can amplify this
issue. In a divisional engineer's office, a peon asked for
leave. The divisional accounts officer asked for a bribe of
150 to approve it.
The peon complained to the
Anti-Corruption Bureau, who laid a trap and caught the
accounts officer red-handed. Was he prosecuted? No, but his
punishment came through a haranguing investigation leading
to a settlement of 60,000 he paid as a bribe to the bureau
officials to get the case squashed. In a perverse sense,
this was democratisation of corruption. What did the peon
do? Otherwise a simple and honest man, he started demanding
bribes from anyone wanting access in the engineer's office.
Today, the rates of bribe have gone up hugely as a sort of
democratic right. In one instance, a patwari shocked an
entrepreneur by demanding 50,000, instead of the usual
5,000, for issuing a patta for an authorised conversion of
land from farm to commercial use where he was going to build
a hotel. All possible directions from seniors did not move
the patwari to settle for less and do his job, and the
entrepreneur ended up paying it. The delay would have meant
other problems.
These two instances point to lack of transparency and
accountability in the system and its monitoring. In both the
cases, there was no system to check the progress of matters
by superiors, and this is systemic. This is aided by Article
311 of the Constitution, which provides a life-long
insurance to civil servants from being sacked. If one looks
around, we find that very few civil servants have been
sacked.
The easy way out was to send them back to their home cadre
as punishment. In one case this author knows of, the person
was asked to resign. No effort was made to recover the huge
wealth that had been accumulated. As far as politicians go,
such as Sukh Ram, Antulay and many others, the track record
is worse. Political compulsions do not allow prosecution,
and the prosecuting machinery is influenced to go slow or
weaken the charges.
This is what the proposed Lokpal will try and do, and by
ensuring control over the investigative and prosecutorial
machinery. The Lokpal Bills will now be debated before the
Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice. A
refreshing and welcome change is that their proceedings will
be public.
Having appeared before several parliamentary committees, it
has not been a pleasant experience because their proceedings
are not public and one is also cautioned that evidence
submitted before them cannot be made public until the
committee has submitted its report to the House. This author
has always protested that when the House proceedings are
public, how can a subsidiary body be opaque, but to no
avail.
With the movement now on the Lokpal Bill that has already
had a salutary impact on our economy and the governance
system, we need to start a similar movement at the level of
the states and our districts. Only then can we hope to
arrest the pandemic of corruption.
The author is secretary
general of CUTS International
This news can
also be viewed at: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
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