Vigilance commissioner girds up for action
Batuk Vora

Date circa 1999.

Shooting out a detailed 23-point questionnaire to 976 ‘public servants’ soliciting their suggestions and response on ways to deal with corruption, central vigilance commissioner N. Vittal has launched his strategy formulation process.

These people include secretaries to the government of India, chief managing directors of all the public sector units and banks and top officials of departments and such public organisations as Confederation of Indian Industries, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce as well as consumer activist organisations like Common Cause and CERC, Ahmedabad.

Speaking before a citizens meeting organised by National Institute of Leadership and Public Administration (NILPA) and Indian Institute of Engineers here on Oct. 30 at Gajjar Hall, Vittal declared he was in the process of formulating a short and long term action plan both to curb the root causes of corruption as well as mobilise the public support against corruption. "I am already receiving replies to my questionnaire," he said.

He said he knew the Central Vigilance Commission had remained since 34 years almost an ‘invisible’ body for which nobody cared much. "It has to be a crusader against corruption from now on," he said.

"Most shameful fact we face today is that Transparency International based in Germany has put India on number nine on the world list of most corrupt countries, while India stands at number 137^th in the human development report of the United Nations," he reminded.

In a sarcastic tone, he compared how in a country like Thailand, they proudly talked about "honest corruption" (where the corrupt would return the bribe if the things were not accomplished) while in India it was still a "dishonest corruption."

The five main "root causes of corruption" rampant among the government functionaries and even many members of elected bodies (declared as public servants by the supreme court in Zarkhand Mukti Morcha case), according to Vittal, were: scarcity of certain goods and services; red tape and delay; lack of transparency (in contracts, tender approval procedures, etc); clumsy administrative procedures that have built safety cushions for guilty servants that cause delay and ultimately help the corrupt to escape; and casteism, tribalism or biradari where different cadres of government officials defend persons of their cadre.

"Based on the analysis, experience and exposure I have had so far, the following appear to be the areas where action I am contemplating to launch an action to begin with," he declared.

First, substantially bringing down the time taken in departmental inquiries (to fix the maximum time of six months). Services of retired honest officers, with due training, can be utilised for this task.

Secondly, to remove corruption in banking sector, a directive to be issued to all banks asking them to computerise their operations by January of the year 2,000. He said out of 65,000 branches of banks in India, only 5,000 have been computerised.

In the field of tenders, we can "ban completely post tender negotiations except with 1.1 or lower bidder in all government offices, public sector enterprises, banks and organisations covered by the CVC. "We can eliminate at one stroke the scope for corruption, which exists in tenders, especially at the time of post tender negotiations.

"I am looking into the financial sector in the Vigilance Manual so that while the honest are encouraged to take decisions, the corrupt are punished. This is the third step I intend to take," he continued.

The ultimate question is how to develop a culture of honesty in the system? Why not display "a rogues gallery" in every office displaying those who have been found to be corrupt and have been punished?

"The number of people to be covered by the commission is also staggering: 4 million central government servants, 5 million state government servants, 2.5 million public sector employees and may be a million bank employees. Together they constitute 12.5 million people, a small number compared to 950 million population of India. But their role is dominant. Relatively a small number can have very important role so far as corruption level is concerned," he said.

23-point questionnaire deals with day to day facts of Indian economy such as cost of corruption, which in the matter of price of electricity "40% was lose due to corruption" and so how to publicise widely this fact?

Or, how to build public opinion, what were the loopholes in the system, procedures, rules of departments or how to implement the code of conducts meant for public sector units?

Vittal was presented with a citation called a "bright and innovative bureaucrat" by a group of concerned citizens of Amdavad and a memento of "Sidi Syed ni Jali" – a replica of the historic Jali (architectural network) of Amdavad