Remedies To Fight Corruption
Corruption cannot be totally eliminated but it must be brought down to the minimum level. One of the most common responses to graft or bribery earlier has been hurried piecemeal institutional reforms and introduction of tighter checks on routine administrative work for a short time that follows the incident. Obviously, this is not enough. It needs to be understood that corruption is more environmental than an administrative problem. What we need is a well thought out, long term strategy. It has to be a radical operation encompassing administrative, legal, social, economic and other changes. Some of the measures to combat administrative corruption are outlined below:
1. Postings and Transfers of Civil Servants according to Rules:
Postings and transfers of civil servants have an important bearing on corruption. Normally it should be done in interest of efficient administration and as per well settled rules. But it often happens that these rules are not observed in practice. On the one hand there is to much political interference. Hundreds of transfers are effected done because of political influence. It is particularly so at the State level. The rules regarding rotational transfers in the higher civil services must be strictly observed. The rules provide that stay in one station or in charge of a certain post cannot be more than four years. This is intended to provide for corruption free service. But it is seldom observed in practice. Civil servants who remain at a certain post for a longer time develop vested interests and attachments which come in the way of their independent functioning.
2. Implementing the Right to Information Act in form and spirit:
The Right to Information Act allows citizens to inspect public records, documents and works ( and take samples of these as well ). Departments have 30 days to consider the request and must give reasons for rejecting a request. Penalties can be imposed on officers who failed to deliver information within 30 days and or furnish false information. Information commissions at the State and Central level monitor the implementation of the act. If the act is implemented in the right spirit it will go a long way in preventing corruption.
3. Assets Statements:
It should be obligatory for all ministers. M.Ps and M.L.As. to declare the assets owned by them, their spouses and their children every year. These should be printed officially and made available to anyone who wants to pay for it. Any falsification of these statements should be declared a punishable offence involving imprisonment. Ministers should be required to go further. They should list all contracts entered into by them or their family members. The same rule should apply to government officials and members of the judiciary also.
4. Investigating Agencies to have More Teeth and Made Autonomous:
While the government has set up many agencies at the central and state levels like the Central Vigilance Commission, State Vigilance Commissions, Central Bureau of Investigation, and Lokayuktas at the state level yet most of these agencies lack teeth to punish the guilty and act more like advisory bodies. Also, most of them lack their own investigating machinery to enquiry into the alleged acts of corruption. Moreover, the permission of the government is required in a majority of the cases to initiate action against senior officers. These type of constraints have been a major hindrance in combating corruption. The various agencies created by the government should be given more teeth, made more independent and appointments to these august bodies should be based only on the criterion of efficiency. While the government has taken a step forward in this direction by endowing the Central Vigilance Commission with a statutory status in 2003, yet much more has to be done to ensure that these agencies are able to perform their duties efficiently.
5. Making Administration More Accountable:
India is a parliamentary democracy which works on the principle of ministerial responsibility. The civil servant is responsible to the minister who in turn is responsible to the parliament, which in turn is accountable to the people. However, the principle of the accountability is not working in the desired manner. In India we have a big government performing enormous functions. Decisions are taken at various levels of administration where use of discretionary power may be involved. It is difficult for Parliament to exercise control over such a large bureaucracy. The judiciary is bogged down by heaps of mounting arrears of cases. The result is general lack of accountability in administration. Srivatsa Krishna in his article Beginning of a Beginning (The Hindustan Times) says Almost everyone in the public services is accountable to no one and perpetually considers himself above the law. Respect for the rule of law is shamefully uncommon and it is often noticed that those who violate the law in the most egregious fashion are the ones who get away the easiest…. accountability is sadly but surely perishing at all levels. Therefore what is required is to enforce the principle of accountability at all levels.
6. Administrative procedures should be simplified and delays eliminated
As said above, administrative delay is one of the causes of corruption. Therefore to reduce or control corruption it is necessary to eliminate such delays, Office procedures should be simplified and levels of hierarchy reduced. Instead of the present system in which a file takes rounds of several offices, before a decision is taken, a new pattern of decision-making ought to be evolved. It is particularly necessary where public dealings are involved. There should be a single-window-decision system and a horizontal integration across departments to provides services on a single platform. (Example: The e-Seva in Andhra Pradesh and Friends in Kerala). This will reduce delays and save the public from harassment. Official forms should be brief and simple which any ordinary citizen can understand. All information should be provided therein as to where to apply and how much time the work will take to be done. There is O&M machinery for this purpose in the government of India but its impact is not much visible on the administration. It should be made more effective. Information technology should be harnessed effectively to reduce the delays and simplify administrative procedures.
7. Separate courts for corruption cases
An effective way to curb corruption is that the guilty must be punished quickly to have deterrent effect on others. Since it is not practicable through the present judicial set-up, separate courts should be created to deal exclusively with the corruption cases. That will hasten the process of disposal of cases.
8. Decentralisation of administration.
Decentralised administration helps reduce corruption. It takes decision-making closer to beneficiaries, and so makes officials more responsive. Giving Panchayats financial powers and the right to hire and fire officials will increase the people’s voice and official’s accountability.
There should be greater participation of the users in the administration Projects and programmes improve when the beneficiaries participate in their design and implementation ( as in joint forest management). Regular consumer surveys can highlights the problems and suggestions of users.
9. A strong Civil Society:
We need a strong civil society that takes the initiative instead of depending helplessly on politicians and officials. A strong civil society is full of groups that band together for social goals. It brings pressure to bear against the corrupt. We have to create a different Indian who will be intolerant of corruption and system debasement. To quote P.N.Duda we must know that in the ultimate analysis the corrupt politician is their creation and is a concrete ghost of the psychologically corrupt man in the street whose approval of his conduct the corrupt takes for granted. A good legal order in society emanates from a good moral order amongst the people. The anonymous sovereign of all societies is the nameless common man. “His voting ways, his submission or non-submission to an unjust or corrupt system, the fear of his revolt against injustice, his possible indifference and contempt for the unworthy and the corrupt in public lifethese are the fateful and ultimate determinants of the type of political leader and political system and the quality of public administration we will have”.
10. Electoral Reforms:
It has already been said that the most potent cause of corruption in this country is the political corruption. It became endemic from 1969 when a minority government succeeded in maintaining itself in office by the use of money power. In the 1971 elections, money power was used on a much larger scale than ever before. 1977, saw the emergence of the lethal combination of money and muscle as instruments for winning elections. Therefore there is urgent need for initiating continuous electoral reforms.
It may be concluded that corruption today has ceased to shock people. Even when malpractices are detected, the Ministers and officers go scot-free. At the most, they are transferred. So long corruption fails to attract legal, moral and social censures, there is no hope of eliminating or even reducing it. It may not be possible to root out corruption completely at all levels but it is certainly possible to roll it down or to contain it within the tolerable limits. Corruption is a cancer which every Indian must strive to obliterate. Honest and dedicated persons in public life known for their honesty and integrity, reduced government control in the economy, popularly called liberalisation policy, and control over electoral expenses could be three most important prescriptions for reducing corruption. People have tolerated the corrupt persons for long. It is now time that containing corruption is take seriously by the dedicated political rulers.
(Note: This topic has been dealt with elaborately as it overlaps with General Essay, General Studies [Social Issues) and the Personality Test)