Outsmarting the Mir Jafars

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.