Corruption

The growing public dissatisfaction with corruption in public life triggered the emergence of a civil society movement that forced the government to initiate the establishment of a powerful People’s Ombudsman (the Jan Lok Pal), with the powers to prosecute corruption at even the highest levels of government. India’s ranking in the annual corruption index, released by Berlin-based non-government organization Transparency International (TI), slid to 81 among a group of 180 countries.

Recent Developments

Corruption Perceptions Index and India

  • India slips two places on corruption perceptions index, though Country has maintained same score as 2016 and improved its points in last five years.
  • In terms of score, India has been doing fairly well in the last five years. India has improved its score from 36 in 2012 and 2013 to 40 in 2016 and 2017. In 2014 and 2015, India generated a score of 38.
  • According to the report, Philippines, India and the Maldives are among the worst regional offenders in this respect. These countries score high for corruption and have fewer press freedoms and higher numbers of journalist deaths.
  • The index, which measures perception of corruption in the public sector, uses a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.
  • New Zealand and Singapore scored the highest scores with 89 and 84 out of 100, respectively. Somalia was found to be the most corrupt country in the world.

Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act 2018

The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (the "Act") was recently amended by the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2018 (the "Amendment Act"). Most of the amendments are aimed at tightening up the existing provisions in the Act and expanding the coverage of the offences.

  • Bribery (Undue Advantage Defined as Gratification Other than Legal Remuneration): The amendment giving a bribe is now an offence, punishable by a 7-year prison term except when one is forced to give a bribe. However, it should be reported within 7 days.
  • Criminal Misconduct: Criminal misconduct will now include only two offences:
    • Misappropriating of property entrusted to the banker
    • Amassing assets disproportionate to known sources of income
  • Pre-investigation Approval: Now, a police officer will need prior approval of relevant authority or government to begin investigation.
  • Sanction for Prosecution: A sanction is needed for prosecuting former officials for offences done while in office.
  • Forfeiture of Property: The criminal misconduct provision is intended to protect public servants from being wrongly prosecuted for official decisions. Under it, a public servant cannot be pulled under the corruption law unless they have accumulated assets more than what they could have obtained with their steady income, or have misappropriated assets entrusted to them.
  • Punishing Bribe Givers: By making citizens liable for offering a bribe to a public servant, the anti-corruption law has been brought in line with the UN Convention Against Corruption.

Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018

  • The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2018, proposes to give the Centre the power to set the tenure and salaries of State and Central Information Commissioners.
  • The current law gives Information Commissioners a tenure of five years and salaries which match those of Election Commissioners.

CBI & Consent

  • The Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal governments withdrew “general consent” to the CBI for investigating cases in their respective states. The state governments said they had lost faith in the CBI in the backdrop of its internal turmoil marked by the open war among the agency’s top officers. They have also alleged that the Centre is using the CBI to unfairly target Opposition parties.
  • Unlike the National Investigation Agency (NIA), which is governed by its own NIA Act and has jurisdiction across the country, the CBI is governed by the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act that makes consent of a state government mandatory for conducting investigation in that state.
  • There are two kinds of consent: Case-specific and General. Given that the CBI has jurisdiction only over central government departments and employees, it can investigate a case involving state government employees or a violent crime in a given state only after that state government gives its consent.

Corruption

  • Corruption is a form of dishonesty or criminal activity undertaken by a person or organization entrusted with a position of authority, often to acquire illicit benefit. Corruption may include many activities including bribery and embezzlement, though it may also involve practices that are legal in many countries.
  • It is not only limited to government authorities but now can be seen within the private sector as well, for instance, the Satyam scandal. It not only hampers the economic growth but also undermines the rule of law in the country.
  • More than 50% people in India have accepted giving bribes while accessing public services. Though recently held protest under the banner of ‘India against corruption (IAC)’ brought corruption at the center stage of the political discourse and led to passage of Lokpal Act, it ended up merely as a political gimmick with little progress seen in reforms on the other fronts such as electoral and administrative.

Causes of Corruption

According to a 2017 survey study, the following factors have been attributed as causes of corruption-

  • Greed of money, power, luxury or any other materialistic desires.
  • Higher levels of market and political monopolization
  • Low levels of democracy, weak civil participation and low political transparency
  • Higher levels of bureaucracy and inefficient administrative structures
  • Low press freedom
  • Low economic freedom
  • Large ethnic divisions and high levels of in-group favoritism
  • Gender inequality
  • Low degree of integration in the world economy
  • Large government size
  • Low levels of government decentralization and Political instability
  • Poverty
  • Low levels of education
  • Low Internet access and so on.

Level and Volume of Corruptions

Generally corruption is divided as Low level and High level-

  1. Low Level Corruption: It is popularly known a ‘chai-pani’, ‘chiri-miri’ which common citizens encounters every day. Such corruption may not have major negative consequences. It is just a transfer of money from one pocket to another in a society.
  2. High Level Corruption: It is popularly known or are in nature of ‘scam’ or ‘scandal’. It is committed by high people or business man in a big quantum.

Corruption can be classified on basis of its volume-

  1. Petty Corruption: Petty Corruption is also called “need based corruption”. It involves small bribes taken by public servant or public officials who abuse their office by demanding bribe for his personal consideration. It is also called “speedy money” given to speed up or delay the matter of public service which is usually occurring at the bottom of the bureaucracy. Administrative or Petty Corruption refers to act of bribing, kickbacks or grace money. In this corruption, public officials extract a payment for implementing an existing decision.
  2. Grant Corruption: It is also called “Greed Based Corruption”. Grant corruption is committed by higher officials at top level who make decision on large public contract. It involves huge amount received for personal greed.
  3. Systematic Corruption: Systematic Corruption or Endemic corruption is corruption which is primarily due to a weakness of an organization or process. It can be contrasted with individual officials or agents who act corruptly within the system. Factors which encourage systemic corruption include conflicting incentives, discretionary powers, monopolistic powers, lack of transparency, low pay and a culture of impunity.
  4. Professional Corruption: Professional Corruption is also known as ‘predictable corruption’ in which ‘you give bribe and you get your service’.
  5. Amateur Corruption: Amateur Corruption is also known as ‘unpredictable corruption’. In which you cannot be sure of service delivery even when you pay the bribe. Corruption itself is bad term and harmful to individual as well as to the society. Unpredictable corruption is more dangerous because even when you had paid bribe, you are not sure of service and moreover you spent your nights devoid of sleepng and you are in fear that, you might be blackmailed for your action.

Preventing Corruption (Anti-Corruption Efforts)

The anti-corruption regime in India consists of a set of laws and agencies that have been introduced in a haphazard manner over the years and have been largely ineffective. Some of the important laws are-

Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988

  • Provides a definition for corruption and lists out the acts which would amount to as corruption such as bribes, gifts for favors etc.
  • Seeks to create a balance between need to bring corrupt to the books and protect honest officers. Prosecution of an officer requires sanction from the government
  • Includes employees of the central government and the union territories, the employees of public undertakings, nationalized banks,s etc.
  • Special judges are appointed for trial under the act who can order a summary trial in appropriate cases

Methods of Corruption

Bribery: Bribery involves the improper use of gifts and favours in exchange for personal gain. This is also known as kickbacks or, in the Middle East, as baksheesh. It is the common form of corruption. The personal gain that is given can be anything from actively giving preferential treatment to having an indiscretion or crime overlooked.

Embezzlement, theft and fraud: Embezzlement and theft involve someone with access to funds or assets illegally taking control of them. Fraud involves using deception to convince the owner of funds or assets to give them up to an unauthorized party.

Graft: The political act of Graft, is a well-known and now global form of political corruption, being the unscrupulous and illegal use of a politician’s authority for personal gain, when funds intended for public projects are intentionally misdirected in order to maximize the benefits to illegally private interests of the corrupted individual(s) and their cronies.

Extortion and blackmail: While bribery is the use of positive inducements for corrupt aims, extortion and blackmail centre around the use of threats. This can be the threat of violence or false imprisonment as well as exposure of an individual’s secrets or prior crimes.

Influence peddling: Influence peddling is the illegal practice of using one’s influence in government or connections with persons in authority to obtain favours or preferential treatment for another, usually in return for payment.

Networking: Networking can be an effective way for job-seekers to gain a competitive edge over others in the job-market. The idea is to cultivate personal relationships with prospective employers, selection panelists, and others, in the hope that these personal affections will influence future hiring decisions. This form of networking has been described as an attempt to corrupt formal hiring processes, where all candidates are given an equal opportunity to demonstrate their merits to selectors.

Abuse of discretion: Abuse of discretion refers to the misuse of one’s powers and decision-making facilities. Examples include a judge improperly dismissing a criminal case or a customs official using their discretion to allow a banned substance through a port.

Favoritism, Nepotism and Clientelism: Favouritism, nepotism and clientelism involve the favouring of not the perpetrator of corruption but someone related to them, such as a friend, family member or member of an association.

Benami Property Act, 1988

  • The act defines a ‘benami’ transaction as any transaction in which property is transferred to one person for consideration paid by another person.
  • Such transactions were a feature of the Indian economy, usually relating to the purchase of property (real estate), and were thought to contribute to the Indian black money problem.
  • Recent amendments have widened the definition of the benami property and allow the government to confiscate such properties without any hassles of court approvals

Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003

  • Gives statutory status to CVC. Central Vigilance Commissioner shall be appointed by President on recommendation of a Committee consisting of the PM, MHA and LoP in LS
  • Covers AIS officers, Gazetted officers of center, senior members of the PSB banks etc.
  • Commission, while conducting the inquiry has all the powers of a Civil Court

Right to Information Act, 2005

  • Makes disclosure of information a legal right of the public to promote transparency
  • Section 4 mandates proactive disclosure of the information and digitization of the records
  • Many RTI activists have used it to bring out the irregularities in the functioning of the public authorities e.g. Vyapam scam of MP.

Whistleblower Protection Act 2014

  • More than 60 RTI activists have been murdered and many more assaulted due to lack of protection.
  • WPA accords special protection to the people who disclose the acts of wrongdoing in the government. Provides anonymity and protection from prosecution under acts such as Official Secrets Act, 1923.

Lokpal and Lokayukta Act, 2013

  • • Appoints an independent authority Lokpal at center and Lokayukta at states to probe into the complaints of wrongdoing by the public servants
  • • Lokpal will be appointed by committee consisting of PM, LoP, CJI, Speaker and an eminent jurist

E-governance Initiatives

  • E-gov apart from advancing the good governance objectives of accountability and transparency also seeks to reduce the manual interface between state and citizen thus preventing the incidences of bribery
  • Initiatives like service delivery through CSCs, digitization of the land record, JAM, DBT, E-biz (single window system), e-marketplace etc. help prevent corruption

Citizen Charters and Public Service delivery and Grievance Redressal Acts in states

  • Many states like Karnataka (SAKLA initiative) and Rajasthan have enacted such acts to make bureaucracy legally accountable for delivering quality service within stipulate time periods.
  • Bihar is the only state to have a Grievance Redressal Act covering all departments
  • These acts also create grievance redress mechanism (GRMs) for the public to ensure effective enforcement of the act. CPGRAMS is another such GRM created under e-gov project

Investigating Institutions

There are various bodies in place for implementing anti-corruption policies and raising awareness on corruption issues. At the federal level as well as on the States level. Some of them are-

  • A Lokpal, is an anti-corruption authority or ombudsman who represents the public interest. The concept of an ombudsman is borrowed from Sweden. The Lokpal has jurisdiction over all Members of Parliament and central government employees in cases of corruption. The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act was passed in 2013 with amendments in parliament, following the Jan Lokpal movement led by Anna Hazare. The Lokpal is responsible for enquiring into corruption charges at the national level while the Lokayukta performs the same function at the state level. Even up to 2018, and ever since the related Act of Parliament was passed in India, the Indian Government is yet to appoint a Lokpal.
  • The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is the apex watchdog agency established in 1964. The CVC can investigate complaints against high level public officials at the central level; not at the state level. It oversees and supervises vigilance and anti-corruption work in all central government ministries, departments and PSUs. All group A officers (joint secretary and above) come under its ambit.
  • The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is the prime investigating agency of the central government and is generally referred to as a credible and respected institution in the country. It is placed under the Ministry of Personnel, Pensions & Grievances and consists of three divisions: the Anti-Corruption Division, the Special Crimes Division and the Economic Offenses Division. The Supreme and High Courts can instruct the CBI to conduct investigations. It investigates offenses by central government and PSU employees. States too can seek help and also probes criminal cases.
  • The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C & AG) is the apex auditing body. The C & AG has produced several reports on state departments such as railways, public sector enterprise, and tax administration. These reports have revealed many financial irregularities, suggesting a lack of monitoring of public expenses, poor targeting and corrupt practices in many branches of government. It Audits accounts of all government departments/ ministries/PSUs. Look into discrepancies of expenses made by government/departments government controlled companies. Submits reports to Parliament that are then referred to the Public Accounts Committee.
  • The Chief Information Commission (CIC) was established in 2005 and came into operation in 2006. It has delivered decisions instructing government, courts, universities, police, and ministries on how to share information of public interest. State information commissions have also been opened, thus giving practical shape to the 2005 Right to Information (RTI) Act.

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