In his first presidential address,
Mohammad Ali Jinnah told the constituent assembly of Pakistan in August 1947
that one of the biggest curses that India was suffering from was bribery and
corruption. Sixty seven years down the line, things have not changed much. If
we go further back in history, whether Mir Jafar helping Robert Clive or Mir
Sadiq stabbing Tipu Sultan in the back, or the intrigues and conspiracies in
the Maratha clans, all point to a basic human trait. Some kind of Murphy’s Law.If
there are opportunities to bribe and to be bribed, there will always be some
people who will utilize them for their benefits.
Therefore, in these interesting
times when we hear some people shout from the rooftops that they would root out
corruption from India, it is pertinent to pause for a moment and ask, ‘can this
really be done’? When Transparency International or any similar organization comes
out with the ‘corruption index’, the countries are graded from very clean to
highly corrupt. None of the countries is classified as ‘corruption-free’. If
Denmark or Finland or Switzerland – small, developed nations with miniscule
populations-cannot wipe out corruption, can we, a country of a billion plus
with a multitude of cultures, languages, aspirations and attitudes, achieve
this? I think what is needed to be focused on and can be achieved to a
considerable degree is lessening of corruption by reducing the opportunities to
indulge in corruption.
When I joined as a trainee in
Chhattisgarh in 2004, Right To Information Act was on the anvil. It was still
not obligatory for the babus to part with what they perceived as ‘sensitive’ information. Once I observed that an
officer who was ahead of his times had declared the results of the written
examination for a government post on the same evening. This is a rarity even
now in most state government recruitments. ‘If you are transparent, there is nothing to fear about. If you delay, then there is a lot of scope for mischief’, he
told me. So, transparency is the key to trim down corruption.
To achieve this transparency, we
need to wholeheartedly embrace information technology. IT can revolutionize
governance and reduce corruption in a big way. Along with IT, use of widely
connected mobile networks can help to improve the quality of life of ordinary
citizens. Here are a few examples.
1. One of the biggest areas of
corruption in government sector is civil work. It is so brazen that the public
has almost accepted substandard works as a part of their environment. But a
little enthusiasm and enforcement from the top can go a long way in changing
this gloomy scenario. All departments that take up any kind of civic work-road
repairs, laying of new roads, repair of footpaths, building constructions,
repair of sewage lines, creation of playgrounds etc- can be mandated to put all
the estimates, GPS locations, approvals, certified reasons for taking up the
work, details of contractors, purchases and costs, certification of quality, inspection
reports etc. of each work on their respective websites. This would make it easier
for people to know more about the work in their neighborhood or elsewhere. When
there is a fear that someone might question the quality and quantity of work
with hard evidence, the executioners will be more careful.
2. Wages is one more important area
where government employees make money. Underpayment, non-payment, extraction of
more work than what is permitted in a day-there are different ways to shortchange
the poor, deserving laborers. MGNREGS was perhaps the first scheme where it was
made mandatory to remit wages to the bank/post office accounts of the workers.
This does pose a problem in backward and naxal-affected areas but can be
implemented successfully in more accessible regions. When it was suggested
about four years back by a relatively young forest officer that this could be
implemented in Forest Department, he was advised ‘to learn to live like a
bureaucrat’ by an affectionate senior while another superior did not want to
see his face.Making it binding for all government departments to pay wages to
the worker through bank accounts could be a giant stride forward in substantially
minimizing corruption.
3. Government purchases is another
significant function of the departments where shady deals are routinely struck.
Apart from paying more than what the items merit, there is also the possibility
of purchasing substandard products at a higher cost.Then there is the question
of necessity. Again, mandatory online display of all the purchases above a
particular ceiling, say 10,000 rupees, by all the departments with information
on the rationale of purchase, procedure followed, the authenticity of the
supplier, verification of the quality of the product, online market price etc could
bring down the level of fraud drastically.
4. Whenever I pay my income tax
dutifully, I wonder about the businessmen, doctors and shopkeepers who evade
tax flagrantly. Doctors don’t give receipts, businessmen show losses and
shopkeepers avoid issuing bills for the purchase we make. Only technology-driven
intervention like mandatory billing monitored by linking the computers of the
sellers/service providers to the government’s database etc can improve the
situation bringing in more revenue to the government coffers.
5. Several state governments have
adopted guarantee of certain basic services in a time-bound manner to the
citizens through Acts such as Sakala in Karnataka. Is it not possible to extend
grievance redressal to all citizens of the country through a uniform system like
the 911 helpline in the United States?
If someone
complains to a civic body about the non-existent street lights or unusable
footpath near her house, she will in all likelihood be directed to contact the
concerned engineer. Now, is it not the duty of the civic body to ask the
concerned engineer to address the problem and then inform her?
Let us
suppose that a socially and economically disadvantaged person in the interiors
of Bidar district of Karnataka has a complaint that a powerful landlord is
trying to take over his land with the connivance of local tehasildar and
police. What can he do? Give a complaint to the district Superintendent of
Police or Collector? How will he follow up the case? How many times he may have
to visit the district head quarter? If he is given the facility of complaining
through mail/phone and if it is mandated that the complaint has to be addressed
within fifteen days and the outcome intimated to the complainant, then there is
some hope of justice for the farmer.
These are but only a few
examples which one can think of without going deeper into the malaise. The
effects will be clearly visible when the implementation is from top down. A few
scattered individual efforts cannot have a national resonance. And ultimately only
those initiatives that are clearly defined, commonsensical and time-bound will
have an impact on the lives of common man by reducing the
scourge of corruption. But no effort can ever eradicate corruption completely.
That will always remain a wishful thinking.
