So Corruption Is a Bad Word

 This first appeared in the Heraldo in Nov 22

Corruption which is the proverbial elephant in the room was a subject of much discussion. At the “Vigilance Awareness Week” in November 22, none other than the Prime Minister thundered against corruption. He called for “zero tolerance” against corruption saying that the agencies acting against the corruption need not fear or be defensive while doing their work. He went on to say that the corrupt should not escape “at any cost” and they should not get any political or social protection.

 The PM, launched the “Complaint Management System” on the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) portal. This is more for the CVC to manage the complaints received, and they receive many. To complain on this site one would need to a PhD in Central Government organisational structure because only complaints against certain class of employees is allowed and not State Government employees. In this day and age they insist that complaints under the Public Interest Disclosure scheme should be only by post, no email. Imagine the trouble one has to take to complain, on wonder the corrupt are never caught or punished.

The CVC has monthly reports, the last is August 22, possibly to stay aligned with the PM’s speech. They had 3057 cases pending they rejected 28% and 55% were recommended for further action. The important point is they do not give any indication if even one was found corrupt. We have the highest office in the land giving a clarion call to act against corruption and one of the key departments (CVC) to monitor this has mired itself in more red tape.

At the State level we have our Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant tweeting, CORRUPTION CAN SERIOUSLY UNDERMINE GOOD GOVERNANCE IN A STATE. TODAY, ON #InternationalAntiCorruptionDay AND BEYOND, WE MUST ENCOURAGE INTEGRATED AND COLLECTIVE APPROACHES TO FIGHT CORRUPTION.

He is in a good position to achieve his goals, given the fact that he has a control of almost the entire Assembly so he has no worries about balancing different lobbies. He can fully focus on delivering a good corruption free governance.

He is right when he says corruption effects good Governance. The World Bank considers corruption a major challenge to its twin goals of ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity in developing countries. This does not mean there is no corruption in developed nations, it happens but does not effect the common man. The reason for saying this, is because corruption has a disproportionate effect on the poor and increases the cost and reduces access to services viz: health, education and justice.

Corruption fuels the hawala market which is also used by terrorists. Recall that the perpetrators of the Mumbai blasts used the smugglers route and the authorities turning a blind eye assumed it was just gold or silver. How wrong they were but no lessons have been learnt.

So both the Prime Minister and Chief Minister are right in focusing on corruption if India and Goa are to improve their development status and eliminate the chances of anti nationals taking advantage of the hawala route.

Catching small fish which seems to be the order of the day has to change and focus should be on big fish. The President of the Goa State Industries Association while welcoming the CM to his second term, stated that the focus should be on ensuring Ministers who were known to hold files should be acted against. This means that a key area of corruption is the fact that files are held up by politicians till a payment is made. If the company cannot pay cash, they insist on “CSR” for their constituency which could be a tractor, ambulance, street lights or fertiliser. This CSR does not qualify as CSR under Government rules it is basically extortion.  

Can you end corruption by turning a blind eye? We had a GIDC official caught red handed, but given a clean chit, how come? He was a relative of a politician. Was this the pressure PM Modi was referring to?  

We can discuss till the cows come home as they say to depict never ending. But if we are to curb corruption given the national importance, we must go after big fish, politicians. Politicians become corrupt because the electorate demands largesse and that can only be funded by corruption. The foundation for a corrupt politician is a corrupt electorate.

At the Interpol conference, again PM Modi said that the corrupt must have no place to hide, but they are hiding in plain sight as no big fish is ever caught and punished. The big data is the affidavits filed before every election and strangely no regulatory body ever studies these affidavits. The rags to riches stories of some politicians with almost no work to start with is legendary. A few years in politics and life changes. They become not just wealthy but obscenely wealthy. Their compounded annual growth rate would be impossible for non politician businessman of repute to match. Correspondingly, if they lose an election their net-worth decreases as rapidly as it went up, there is a direct correlation to the fish and loaves of office.

The CBI recently complained to the press, that goans are very tolerant, they do not complain about corruption so there is none. What is the CBI doing, can they not start a suo moto investigation when they can see what is happening? Why do we have flying squads, is it not their job to be proactive and ensure they act when they can see or suspect illegalities, why do already over burdened citizens need to complain.

 The PM and CM should direct the investigative agencies to start at the top and weed out the bad apples, If that is done the bureaucracy will follow and we will have a corruption free government matching the sound bytes and thus a developed India. Jai Hind.