Corruption and Transparency (Issues)

Attitudes that have promoted corruption

The opportunity to be corrupt and be corruptive is only prevalent where there is allocation or procurement of scarce resources or what can be called a ‘bestowing culture’ – because therein lies the power to choose and bestow on who will get what.

Custodians of wealth & resources.

The government acts as the sole custodian of certain resources and in the process of distribution / allocation of resources, be it Land, Water, Electricity, Food, Communication, Goods, Education, Licenses, Permissions, Approvals, services such as Education, Healthcare, Transport etc., demand bribes for bestowing the benefits irrespective of who it benefits as they see it as it is within the power to bestow or not. A sort of holding the key to the lock in your hand and saying there is a value / price to that key.

Bureaucracy as the spider’s web. 

A whole bureaucracy was created to make the bribing process more difficult by making it difficult for the people to bribe say 2-5 levels of authorities to get any benefit. While the idea was great, as it created a method of cross checking that ensures that due process was followed, in time as either the value of the benefit kept increasing or the resource became more scarce or cost-reward benefit increased, all of the employees demanded that if this file has to go to the next higher authority with my endorsement, then I need to benefit from it in some way. It resulted in the citizen made to jump too many hoops to get what was rightfully his due. The bureaucracy developed into this whale shark that found innovative ways to cite ineligibility / lacunae / non-compliance of minute details to extract their own pound of flesh at each level. There is also the bureaucracy’s obsession of a clear paper trail to cover their own stations that enabled people to find trivial reasons of non-compliance.

Corrupting the Genuine. 

Now, once the bureaucracy insisted on bribes even for genuine cases, it also corrupted many who could have stayed honest into saying why should they comply and pay a bribe and many chose to circumvent and pay the bribe – as paying the bribe was less costly. This is the case generally in Direct and Indirect revenue sectors where money actually changes hands from Suffrage to Government. Even in cases of the reverse, especially in subsidizing where the Government pays the contractor / service provider, the power to either grant or hold the subsidy opens the opportunity to be corrupt.

Job security. 

There is an implied job security with a government job and the process to hold anyone truly accountable is non-existent. There are no performance standards and as long as the person attends office and does the odd job, his job is secure. There is no real incentive for him to do his work. Today the only incentive is the bribe he gets for getting the job done.

Impunity. 

The long departmental, legal process ensures that no one is punished. In a country where corruption is rampant, there should be a better conviction rate than that is prevalent. There has to be better vigilance, better processes for reporting, apprehending and swift punishment of the corrupt.

Are there areas where Corruption has ceased to exist?

Yes. At the ground level, wherever the scarcity of resource has been resolved and made plenty, we find that corruption is non-existent. For eg. When there was only one telecom provider, to fix a faulty line we had to pay a bribe to the lineman. Today when one lineman asks, we say disconnect your connection and I will get another line from another service provider. This is one of the keys to solve the corruption – to make the government only responsible for really scarce resources and where possible, make it more competitively available and the market will solve corruption. Yes, this opened a new can of worms as to licensing of service providers which by itself became a new avenue for corruption.

General accepted truths about Corruption

Corruption always travels from Top to Bottom. Cleaner Politicians will breed cleaner bureaucracy and in turn ensure a cleaner government. Therefore the cleaning process should also be top to bottom.

The rampancy of corruption in India is that for a government servant to do his basic duty, he demands a bribe. A ward boy who is in charge of the morgue keeps the morgue under lock and key and he demands a bribe for every time to open it. There will always be an undeserving person applying for a privilege that he is not eligible for, that will breed an opportunity for corruption which can be tackled through a transparency mechanism, but this corruption in giving people their dues and rights is abominable.

Institutional Corruption is where key departments and ministries are empowered to be the final deciding authority on bestowing licenses, approvals and the system acts to milk the beneficiary in whatever means possible. Making these departments more responsible and accountable through a facilitation process of granting licenses and approvals rather than a guardian of wealth and resources would ensure a more transparent system.

Processes that create the most opportunity to be corrupt

1.       Entitlements : PDS, Health, Education Etc.,

2.       Recruitment : Appointments, Transfers etc.,

3.       Revenue : Sales Tax, Service Tax, Income Tax, Excise, Duty etc.,

4.       Subsidies : Food, Fuel, Fertilizer, Drinking water & Sanitation, Child Education, etc.,

5.       Registrations : Land & Property, Birth, Death, Marriage, etc.,

6.       Tendering : Roads, Infrastructure, Procurements, etc.,

7.       Licenses / Permissions / Approvals : Transport, Driving, Building, Factory etc.,

8.       Policing : Violations, Minor Offenses, Minor Altercations, Bailable offenses etc.,

Solutions:

1.       Organisation structural change of Bureaucracy to be more flat – rather than more pyramidal. For each process of verification / approval / authentication, the government can create a pool of inspectors, officers and agents who will be randomly allotted cases to verify / approve / authenticate the application – something like how banks use various agencies that do document verification before giving loans.

2.       This also removes the jurisdictional authorities that empowers people to wield their power over areas and benefit the maximum. Inspection of compliance should not be limited to jurisdictional areas and can be randomly cross verified. Say a building inspector of Zone II will get allotted a random house in Zone V to be inspected and reported electronically before end of day. The next day, another inspector from Zone V will be assigned the same house and asked to report electronically within the very same day. On comparing these two, a true picture will emerge.

3.       Use the Double Blind Paper trail Solution: Make each application devoid of any markings that identify the person applying for any benefit. Just as Exam papers are.

4.       Use of Post / Email / E-Governance as sole channel of interaction with implemented double blind systems for Tendering, Licensing, Approval, Permissions.

5.       Use of Evaluation Forms with Point Grade systems that are double Blind and incorporate Registration Key type Authentication for each approval / permission from the system.

6.       One day limitation to approve or reject applications citing appropriate reasons and options to Re-apply without additional fee on compliance within stipulated times.

7.       Government as a Service provider rather than a Security Guard. Create a facilitator / moderator / mentor for each applicant who will educate & guide the applicant on methods, processes, compliance requirements, statutory requirements like how ISO consultants work. Though these mentors will have no control over who will check / verify the actual compliance.