CENTRAL VIGILANCE COMMISSION P R E S E N T A T I O N O N A N T I C O R R P U T I O N S T R A T E G Y BY S H E E B U U N N I K R I S H N A N
INDEX OF PRESENTATION OVERVIEW OF STRATEGY LEGAL REGULATORY FRAMEWORK EFFECTIVENESS OF TOOLS ANALYSIS AND SUGGESTIONS GENERAL SUGGESTIONS CONCLUSION CREDITS
OVERVIEW OF STRATEGY Strategy to deal with petty corruption: Action: Government Computerisation in delivery of public services Adoption of First come first serve The Potential of the Unique ID project Simplification of Rules & Procedures Action: Government, CVC, Citizens Adoption of Anti Bribery Hotlines Protection of Whistle Blowers
Strategy to tackle grand corruption Actions to address the Demand Side: Action: Political Parties, Parliament, Election Commission Enforcement of Code of Ethics Adoption & Implementation of National Anticorruption Strategy, Institution of Lokpal s Mandatory disclosure of source of funding with annual financial statementsof the political parties Action: Government, Anti- Corruption Agencies Promotion of transparency, objectivity and merit in selection and appointment to important public offices Transparent and participative policy Action: Government, Regulatory Bodies, Oversight Bodies, Parliament Strengthening the independence and integrity of regulatory bodies The performance and effectiveness of regulatory bodies in achieving Fairplay in regulation of business in their sectors
Actions to address the Supply side Action: PrivateSector, Representative Bodies Like FICCI, ASSOCHAM, Government Private Sector stand against corruption Work for corruption free market based transaction system Action: Regulatory Bodies Strengthening the enforcement of corporate governance measures Financial disclosure and accounting norms should be streamlined so that the payment of bribes and kickbacks gets disclosed in accounts and become difficult to conceal. Action: Government, Parliament Introduction of legislation against bribes A system of blacklisting and debarring of companies indulging in unethical practices
LEGAL REGULATORY FRAMEWORK Strengthening of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 Strengthening of Sections 8,9 and 12 of Penal Code Simplification of legaland administrative procedures Introduction of additional provisions of Penal Code Prevention of Benami Transactions Implementation of Benami act Need to issue harsher provisions towards confiscaion of property IntroductIon of Unique Identification Project Unaccounted money parked in foreign banks. The Renegotiation of Double Taxation Agreement Need to widen scope of Income Tax Laws
Judiciary Special judges to be entrusted only with the anti corruption related cases The Supreme Court and the High Courts may lay down guidelines to preclude unwarranted adjournments and avoidable delays. A National Judicial Council The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) The Central Bureau of Investigation Limiting the restrictions imposed under Section 6A of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act only to the criminal misconduct & punitive action for wilful disregard of the Directives. Committee comprising of the CVC and the two Commissioners,Secretary DOPT and the Home Secretary should be established for selection of the full time Chief Vigilance Officers Enactment of a CBI Act along the lines suggested by the Parliamentary Standing Committee Formal coordination mechanism between the CBI and the state Anti Corruption Bureau A client satisfaction survey
State Anti Corruption Agencies Corruption mission should be started by the central government Commissions/Lok Ayuktas may be empowered to supervise the prosecution of corruption related cases. Media Develop an ethical code of conduct Set up an office of Media Ombudsman Secondly, the news organisations should also give a disclosure about their major advertisers Regulatory Bodies Objectivity and transparency should be maintained in recruitment and appointment of officials Self Regulations may include: Restrictions on acceptance of any office post retirement especially from the conflict of interest viewpoint, Ceiling on/ regulation of fees and other remuneration Rotation of auditors once in three years in case of statutory auditors for top listed entities
EFFECTIVENESS OF TOOLS The fact that corruption destroys the very fabric of democracy is missing. The Vision of the Strategy should be towards making corruption free services a fundamental right under the Constitution The fact that corruption kills innocent people is totally missing The draft Strategy repeatedly talks about progressively eliminating corruption while the need of the hour is systematically curbing corruption in a time bound manner Though every Public Servant takes anti-corruption pledge to fight corruption in all spheres of life, the same is missing Whether it is petty or grand corruption or both that affects the poorest is not emphasized The public campaign against corruption which is something very important but ignored becomes clear from the fact that rarely the International Anti- Corruption Day has been observed by either the Central or State Governments since 2006.
The fact that many state governments never make the public servants to take the anti-corruption pledge clearly indicates that any strategy to fight corruption should not make any assumption that State Governments accepts any recommendation willingly. Low cost Technology available to promote transparency is not used. In fact all major meetings of Government Departments and the Board Proceedings of PSUs can be webcast.the use of GIS based information dissemination system is a major tool available to curb many corrupt practices and this should be made mandatory. Forming a network of citizens and honest Government Servants to fight corruption. The need of Involving citizens in crisis management.as a result of Chief Secretary refusing to accept this method it resulted in unbearable agony to lakhs of flood affected victims. Efforts to support whistleblowers in India.Emphasis on witness protection laws has not been invoked.
Efforts to help citizens themselves to appear before tribunal to get cheaper, faster justice. Assets and liabilities of all government servants should be put on the internet as per the recommendations of the ARC and this recommendation has been accepted by the GOI but unfortunately this recommendation in spite of its importance is totally missing in the draft strategy. The fact that many Statutory Heads and Chief Secretaries act like political advisors is not at all considered and without addressing how to make appointment to important statutory posts and other posts like those of Chief Secretaries and Secretaries transparent subjected to thorough public scrutiny which is the need of the hour is totally ignored in the draft Strategy. There should be an independent Committee of eminent people to handle transfers of all those IAS officers who have put more than 15 years of Service. The Selection of the Members of the Committee itself should be transparent and subjected to public scrutiny at every stage.. Videography and webcasting of all meetings held by such Committees must be made mandatory.
Promotion of transparency by vast campaign, making waring of integrity rings mandatory for all senior Government Servants, taking Anticorruption pledge by very senior officers in public, making mandatory the singing of an anti-corruption National Song (both the lyrics and the tune to be selected by having an open competition without giving any financial reward) during the beginning of every public function. Not using Check-lists for frequently handled matters including transfer of Government Servants should be made non-bailable offence with imprisonment upto three years. Prohibiting AIS officers from taking up jobs with private companies and joining political parties within 5 years after retirement/resigning from Service. Prohibiting appointing retired IAS officers for any statutory post at the GOI or the State Government level. There is a total failure of Statutory Auditors and Commercial Auditors in preventing and exposing major scams. If a major scam is detected and the Statutory Auditor has not reported it, then in such an event, all the auditors involved should be punished with imprisonment.
ANALYSIS AND SUGGESTIONS Strategy to deal with petty corruption A time-bound program to put all forms including processing of checklist.time prescribed for taking action should be given within three months by all Secretaries to Governments, within 4 months by all Heads of the Departments and within 6 months by the rest Where ever more than 30 citizens are going to be affected by any decision of the Government (including execution of work, granting excise license etc) each household should be given a pamphlet giving the purpose, its necessity, the cost, the quality of materials, the type of supervision and contact numbers of those in charge who can take action on complaints should be given. Government should create the necessary environment for such activities to be taken up. Authorities who should be approached in case of resistance should be given wide publicity. Observance of Vigilence Week, taking of Anti-corruption pledge by all Public Servants, observing the International Anti-corruption Day has to be made mandatory in all Government Offices.
Strategy to tackle grand corruption Actions to address the Demand Side All IAS officers appointed as Observers must be asked to declare their own assets and liabilities. An officer who himself has withheld information about his own assets and liabilities can never be expected to curb misuse of money by political parties. Social Audit of electoral funding and expenses should be promoted Suggestion given above for appointment to key positions could be modified to address this also. On no account subjecting to public scruitiny important decision affecting the people must be taken and should be placed before Parliament
Actions to address the Supply Side Till such awareness comes to those in the private sector a mechanism should be created to force them to adopt it in their own interest. Total Transparency in all such cases where the giver and the taker of bribes both benefit is the only solution. All such activities must be identified and every stage of processing should be webcasted It is unfortunate that both Statutory and Commercial Auditors never expose such major scams. The entire team of auditors should be criminally prosecuted if a scam is uneathed after th audit. All immovable transactions must be allowed only after giving photo and video evidences of all transactions exceeding a specified amount.
GENERAL SUGGESTIONS A certain percentage of articles published in newspapers should be specifically meant to fight corruption. Making compulsory the singing of Anti-corruption National Song (both the lyrics and the tune to be decided through open competition without offering any financial incentive) in all Schools and all Public functions before the start of the program. Including chapters on Evils of corruption explained both in quantitative and qualitative terms How to use the Right to Information Act to fight corruption in the syllabus of primary and middle school levels. Special subject exclusively dealing with anti-corruption and Right to Information should be prescribed and examination should be held in that subject. Anti Corruption slogans and Evils of corruption should be printed
CONCLUSION THE MISSION OF THE ANTI-CORRUPTION STRATEGY SHOULD BE TO MAKE CORRUPTION FREE SERVICES A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT WHAT EXACTLY GOVERNMENT MEANS BY ZERO TOLERANCE TO CORRUPTION SHOULD BE CLEARLY DEFINED AS THIS IS BEING SPOKEN ABOUT IN THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT. IT SHOULD ALSO BE CLARIFIED AS TO WHETHER THE DEFINITION OF ZERO TOLERANCE TO CORRUPTION IS THE SAME IF USED WITHIN INDIA OR OUTSIDE INDIA LETS US ALL WORK TOGETHER AND TRANSFORM THE COUNTRY INTO GODS ABODE ON EARTH
CREDITS The information and data collected for presentation is from website of : CENTRAL VIGILANCE COMMISSION CLEAN IAS ( AN ONLINE GROUP WORKING TO HELP WHISTLEBLOWERS)
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