DESPICABLE CORRUPTION IN THE I.A.S. AND OTHER SERVICES

Dr.V.S.Gopalakrishnan Ph.D., IAS Retd.

This is not the first time I am writing about corruption in the Government including in the I.A.S. (Indian Administrative Service). While I have got any number of my articles on various subjects printed in various national newspapers and prestigious journals over the last four decades, I have sorely failed in getting any of my articles on corruption accepted by any newspaper or journal so far. Not that these articles had been bad but what puzzles me is whether there are any editorial policies in this matter. Of course, you see screeching headlines in the dailies everyday about someone getting caught while taking a bribe. Such news is “sensational” whereas policy discussions on corruption are perhaps considered boring and useless. There is perhaps a cynical view in the air that corruption is a tacitly accepted way of life in India and that no real reform here is possible! Remember Indira Gandhi’s justification that “corruption is a world-wide phenomenon”?   

The I.C.S.officials who preceded us were not our examples. We admired their erudition and that was all. They got much fatter salaries and served the British interests before Independence . They were generally financially not corrupt as per my understanding. Many of them perhaps would have gladly accepted crates of imported whisky as gifts. The East India Company officials were a different story, and were great avatars of corruption.

When I joined service in 1962, the I.A.S. had generally a clean reputation. There was all round talk of “development” and the raising of the standards of life in rural India in particular. The political leaders had stature unlike most of them today. The Nehru era was generally unknown for corruption, and we should not bring in the odd cases to demolish Nehru. The turning point was perhaps Indira Gandhi’s regime. Corruption became the order of the day in political life and this percolated to the governmental functionaries. It has ever been a downward slope since then and the worst is being witnessed today irrespective of leaders and parties.

Four simple prescriptions are universally prescribed to curb corruption: (1) Make laws simpler (2) Make procedures transparent (3) Take away discretionary powers, and (4) Prescribe time limits to prevent delays that happen with corrupt motives. I do not think there is any governmental report that shows the progress in these areas, say in the last 15 years since our “reforms”. We are left to draw our own conclusions. Very little has been done in terms of simplification of laws. There may be a little more transparency now, especially with the RTI Act. I don’t think that discretionary powers have been handled in an integrated way. Delays are still rampant although in some specific areas time-limits are introduced. To sum up, the four prescriptions are like a scrap of paper and would seem merely theoretical in our context.

In fact, today, the “reduction of corruption” as a goal has vanished from the agendas of political parties, and also from the agendas of governmental agencies. In the present euphoria of “ India shining”, corruption has taken a very back seat if not forgotten altogether as an evil to be tackled. In a booming economy, it is presumed by everyone that money has to change hands, legally or illegally ! This is terrible ! Political leaders and civil servants are stockpiling illegal wealth from bribes, totally greed-based and not just need-based. There is no way to know if money goes to a party or a politician. As regards civil servants, they shore up their nests to last several generations. In India , we are used to thinking of the family unlike in the West where the unit in society has become rather the individual. So, our Indian babus greedily collect wealth to be of use to hordes of children and their families, grand children and their families, great grand children and their families and further future generations !

From my long tenure in government, I can say that as of today, the most criminally corrupt officials hail from the Customs Department and Income Tax Department. I was in charge of a Free Trade Zone more than two decades back. Very low officials like Appraisers and Inspectors of the Customs Department working in my office were having personally the newly fashionable Maruti cars!  Today, there is a ‘prescribed rate’ for each kind of Customs procedure and every low official pockets thousands of rupees every day. At higher echelons, the monthly bribe income runs into lakhs. This day-light robbery is smoothly carried out even today like the working of an assembly line ! In the Income Tax Department, even a low official reckons only a “Peti” for compromising a corporate case. A Peti is a lakh of rupees !   The bigger officials behave like feudal lords and they are crorepathis! There are however a handful of relatively honest souls but they can do pretty little about the muck around them. They are frustrated and often jealous of the bad apples, but their consolation prize is ‘a good conscience’. Departments like Excise, Sales tax, Revenue, Police etc come further down in the pecking order. No President, no Governor, no Chief Minister or a Central Minister, no person of power and authority, is saying anything or doing anything about all this nonsense. The only thing we see is that when an aggrieved person lodges a complaint, the ACB (Anti Corruption Bureau) organizes action to catch the babu taking money, red-handed. Such complaints are few since this can lead to future harassment. Also, the confiscated cash taken as bribe goes into a “toshkhana” for custody during the court’s proceedings and the poor customer has to forget this money for some years!

I have informally sat with and interacted with officials such as Mr.Julio Rebeiro, Mr.Satish Sahney and many other men of integrity in service, and with my own inputs, I believe that perhaps the following actions alone can help reduce corruption vastly in the I.A.S. and other services:

(1)    In the case of ACB catching an official red-handed, he should be simply dismissed from service under the provisions of Art. 311 (2) (b) and (c), and Art.311 (3) of the Constitution. His properties, investments and part of his cash should be temporarily attached till criminal proceedings are over. The Article should be amended if necessary to provide for quick dismissal in such cases. 

Unfortunately, today, there is too much protection to government officials and they cannot be dismissed quickly even when caught red-handed. At the most he   is suspended. The criminal proceedings go on for years. Till then the departmental enquiry cannot be finalized. So he will merrily get 75% of his salary regularly without doing any work.  

(2)    There should be a physical verification of property, investments and cash of a small percentage of officials of each grade at random every year. This will put the fear of God ( ?) in every official. The selection of officials will be done by drawing random numbers. 

Today what is happening is that every official files his “annual property return” with his Department. These returns are never looked into and are simply filed. This is dead waste. Physical verification of the property mentioned in the returns at random every year will definitely curb rampant corruption.

(3)    I know the names of at least a dozen super-corrupt I.A.S. officials who are now multi-crore pathis. In fact this is common knowledge to most I.A.S. officers. Do not ask for direct evidence and I cannot give any! Corruption is a clandestine affair. However, the wind has ears and news spreads unerringly. Yet, none does anything about these super-corrupt officials. They have purchased the top politicians. And it is also vice versa ! So how does one handle this matter to mete out justice to the fellows who are roaming around with total immunity?

Personally, I would find it unpleasant and imprudent to reveal these names for many reasons. I do not like to invite trouble by pointing out to another man in the existing atmosphere. I am happy to be personally free from corruption and that is all. There is a rider ! I do not mind conveying the names to the President of India provided my anonymity is maintained. I wish Mr.Kalam was still there. Anyway, if the Central Government can officially provide a mechanism like this, some honest officials will come forward with names. It is significant that in Uttar Pradesh, there is annual voting by all I.A.S. officers to name the most corrupt I.A.S. officials ! What follow-up action follows officially is not known to me. At least the black sheep are publicized, though they may be shameless and thick-skinned. The recent action against Mrs. Neera Yadav of the U.P. cadre of I.A.S. does not seem to essentially follow the voting results for corrupt I.A.S. officials !

(4)    While the “marked currency notes” may lie in the toshkhana for months/years pending prosecution in cases where the ACB had done an arrest red-handed, based on a complaint, the complainant should be paid at once in cash an equal amount  from the government funds. A special budget provision for this purpose should be introduced. This will remove the hesitation in filing complaints by those who do not want to see their money unnecessarily locked up for years.  

There are many other suggestions, less impactful in nature, that I can enumerate but let me wind this article here.

I am only afraid that when there is no political will to reform corruption, all the above is just empty litany.

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Dr. V.S.Gopalakrishnan Ph.D., IAS Retd.