Our corrupt babudom


Joginder Singh
Former Director - CBI

We have heard far too many promises about fighting corruption. They are meaningless because bureaucracy continues to be corrupt.


Once upon a time, I used to listen to the speeches of our leaders, including the Prime Minister, on adopting a policy of zero tolerance towards corruption, unearthing black money and enforcing laws strictly with rapt attention. Now I realise they did not deserve that attention. I would take their words as the gospel truth in the ardent hope that things would be better tomorrow. Now I don’t believe so.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes has taken this welcome initiative to unearth black money in shady property deals which are largely going undetected due to the difference between the market rates and the registry rates fixed by State Governments. It is a good step, but unfortunately its success shall depend upon the cooperation it will receive from officials of State Governments, especially the revenue and property registration authorities. Most tax-evaders believe that defrauding the Government of revenue is no more than a petty traffic offence.

But just initiating this one step of scrutinising property deals and deeds will not do. The whole gamut of black money generation will not only have to be looked into, but harsh and unpleasant steps will have to be taken to unearth illicit funds. Can the Government achieve this goal?

Assigning additional duties to officials without providing them with the necessary wherewithal — for instance, strict laws, adequate staff, equipment and office — is unlikely to solve the problem of black money. It is a standard practice for the Government to announce a new scheme and then forget about it. If any staff is sanctioned, it is only on paper as it takes years to recruit new hands. Providing appropriate office space and other requisites are issues that are just simply forgotten.

India has a culture of black money. Some so-called experts have been telling us that people evade taxes and duties as the rates are abnormally high. We have heard this absurd argument ever since the phenomenon of black money first surfaced in independent India. High or low taxes have nothing to do with evading taxes. What encourages tax evasion is the near fictional punishment that the law provides for this crime. This has encouraged people to believe that whether or not they are complying with tax laws (as also other laws) is immaterial as nothing is going to happen. They are not wrong: The prescribed punishments for violating tax (and other) laws are not only laughable but can be appealed against through several layers.

Bureaucrats are the biggest culprits responsible for the generation of black money due to corruption. By granting, delaying or denying requests for permissions, sanctions and permits, they accumulate illicit money. A recent news report says that a traffic inspector and a zonal officer were suspended from work for allowing a large number
of buses to ply without permits. This was done at the expense of the Government which lost the revenue that would have accrued to it had permits been issued. The punitive action taken against them is suspension from work, which means they will get 75 per cent of their salary during the suspension period and 90 per cent after six months. The only other action against them would be ‘departmental proceedings’ which might linger on for years. Normally such people are posted to some other job after a year and they get back to the business of making money which they use to fight their cases.

Corrupt policemen are small fry compared to the infamous IAS couple of Madhya Pradesh who, according to a report of the Income Tax Department, have accumulated Rs 350 crore over the years after being inducted into the much-coveted civil services. The culpable party in such cases is the Government which has put all kinds of restrictions on inquiries being conducted against officers of the level of Joint Secretary and above. A similar order, called ‘Single Directive’, issued in 1988 was struck down by the Supreme Court in 1997 on the ground that corruption is not a part of any official duty.

What all this demonstrates is that the battle against black money or illicit funds, whether in India or abroad, is not only half-hearted but the feeble efforts to deal with the menace are stymied on specious grounds of even-handedness, impartiality, and justice. Will the fight against corruption and the black money it generates gather speed with the announcement of the CBI setting up 71 additional courts to expedite cases against the high and mighty? At least something is better than nothing. The Supreme Court had once famously observed that the Union Government was moving at a pace “worse than that of a tortoise” on the anti-corruption front. “Everybody — right from the top — wants corruption cases to be dealt with expeditiously. But at the end of the day, we find the progress made is worse than a tortoise’s pace,” the Supreme Court had said.

Just how all-pervasive corruption is can be gauged from the Attorney-General’s disclosure of the list of officials against whom sanction to prosecute has been sought. The list comprises 126 cases as on December 3, 2010. He said the total number of people against whom sanction had been sought was 319. The break-up is: All-India services — 2; Government — 166; Public Sector Undertakings — 83; banks and financial institutions — 60; and others. These cases were registered between 2000 and 2010, with Customs and Central Excise departments
accounting for 69 people, followed by the Communications Ministry with 32. As many as 26 corruption cases are pending against 13 senior IAS officials; sanction to prosecute them is still awaited.

In his latest sermon to the civil services on April 21, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that the people have little or no tolerance for corruption. True, but what is he doing about it? The Government has the right to dispense with the services of any its employees under Article 311 of the Constitution. But this power has never been used to crack down on corruption in the bureaucracy.

Corruption and black money are inseparable. Without tackling one you cannot terminate the other. Chapman once said, “Wherever you see a man who gives someone else’s corruption, someone else’s prejudice, as a reason for not taking action himself, you see a cog in The Machine that governs us.” When we look at our system, our bureaucracy, we will find why there are so many cogs in The Machine that governs us.




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