An Ordinary Citizen’s View On How To Prevent Corruption

Fight against corruption is the buzzword in most Indian political parties’ manifestos. It is also one of the biggest evils plaguing not only our nation but the whole world. Especially in India, it is a serious problem given our population and the poverty rate as corruption is bound to affect more people and leave the poverty to remain at the same levels even after multiple changes of governments. Though political leaders/parties say that they would fight against corruption but none really follow what they say. People are so vexed with corruption that they made a hero out of Arvind Kejriwal who fought along with Anna Hazare against corruption. Indirectly, the subject of corruption helped Kejriwal to launch a political party AAP that has become quite popular in a short span of time. According to me that is the only positive outcome of recent fight against corruption in India - the birth of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Nobody needs to be told that corruption is the result of man’s greed for the ‘extra’ income that can buy him the luxuries of life without hard work. While other forms of corruption are not greatly harmful to the nation, corruption in government offices is the deadliest of all. The taxes collected form the public are diverted to private pockets through corrupt practices. No wonder we have government contractors who are millionaires overnight as they are hand in glove with government machinery. All arrangements are on quid pro quo basis.

Indian administration is divided into Central, State, Municipal Corporations, Municipalities, Gram Panchayats and Zilla Parishads. Any Government activity whether it is the construction of roads and bridges, irrigation projects, education, health care, women and child welfare, PDS, etc., happens through the various arms of the government at each of the above units of the Government.  Indian Constitution visualizes Panchayats as institutions of self-governance. Given our federal structure, the financial powers and authority to be given to Panchayats is vested with individual state legislatures. This is where the whole problem starts.

Each political party starts playing politics and creates their own channel starting from the state assemblies to the lowest Gram Panchayats. The funds are channeled in such a way that everyone gets his cut from top to bottom while executing the government schemes. The popularity of a CM/leader and craving of others for him to be in power is directly proportional to the money he shares with his party cadre when in power.

All this is because of the various projects and works happening in an atmosphere of secrecy with little or no information to the public. Contracts are given to henchmen and the tax-payers’ money is royally looted through escalations and over-quotes.  Though the RTI act enables one to get information on several issues, it is not serving much purpose because the whistle blowers will be targeted and also the information is sought by the time the whole damage is done.

Though we cannot completely eliminate corruption due to the deep-rootedness of the problem, what is suggested is that:

1.       There should be an electronic kiosk at a prominent location of every village/town/city displaying the amount received and spent on public works of that particular area. These Information Kiosks (IKs) would be for updated information on all expenditure at the village or other administrative unit. 

2.       There should be a Voters Association of India with people from different back grounds at each administrative unit to keep a tab on the local governance and it should have some constitutional authority and be recognized by the law.

3.       Every work allotted to a contractor in a region is to be done in a transparent manner and complete information from start to the finish of the project should be in the know of the public at every stage. If this is already in vogue, there should be more rigorous implementation.

4.       There should also be a website that gives all the above information centrally for almost all the 6 lakh plus villages and all towns and cities in the country.

Why this will work to some extent?  When the rulers know that the ruled are aware of everything that is happening, the scope for corruption becomes limited. At present, nobody is aware of the tax-payers’ rupee flow because of which it is finding its way to foreign banks and into the hands of the corrupt politicians/bureaucrats.

Take the case of USA which is also one of the largest democracies in the world. President Barack Obama on his first day in office on January 21, 2009, issued a presidential memorandum ordering the heads of federal agencies to release as much data as possible to the public. “In the face of doubt, openness prevails” he instructed his team. This order prompted the creation of a website called data.gov that gave information of the federal government. By its third year in July 2012, the information provided by the site shot up by almost 10000 times since its start in 2009. Most European countries are following the same including bodies like World Bank which are now throwing open the information that was hitherto classified.

Openness in spending public money is the need of the hour if we have to compete with the developed countries. When at a household level, each family knows where the rupee is coming from and where it is going, is it not important that 1.25 billion Indians should collectively know about their hard earned money’s inflow and outflow? One annual budget presented in the Parliament by the FM will no longer work.

Ultimately, it is all about MONEY, honey!!! Otherwise why would there be competition for fighting in elections while there is no competition at all to become a Mother Teresa to serve the public.