From: Karmayog.org
Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 10:15 AM
To: info@karmayog.com
Subject: Pl suggest systemic changes in Govt. procedures to reduce Corruption

One of the focus areas of the Anti Corruption Bureau, Maharashtra, is to "Exercise Effective Corruption Control". This can be done by ensuring that Government departments are made citizen friendly and their procedures are designed so as to minimize opportunities for corrupt practices.

The Mumbai - Pact Against Corruption (M-PAC), which is a collaboration between the Anti-Corruption Bureau and the NGO Council and Karmayog, invites you to suggest systemic changes for improving procedures in Government Departments.

All suggestions received will be compiled and discussed with the ACB, after which the ACB will take up the same with the concerned Government Department and Ministry.

Examples of some of the areas where citizens have consistently been expressing difficulties include: the Octroi Department, the Regional Transport Office, the Building Proposals Department of the BMC, the SRA, etc.

Please be specific in your suggestion regarding particular Government Offices e.g.

    - which are the points of corruption there, why, and how should the procedure be changed
    - what other steps e.g. disseminating information, changes in policy should be done by them

Examples of good procedures and best practices that you have experienced would also be welcome.

M-PAC details are at www.karmayog.org/m-pac/

Other information is at www.karmayog.org/anticorruption/

ACB news are at www.karmayog.org/acbnews/

Let's not be sceptical about curtailing corruption.

Corruption is caused due to gaps in procedures. That's it. It's that simple and straightforward.

Laws which are fair, and implementation procedures which are well thought out. That's usually all what's needed.

Regards,

Vinay

www.karmayog.org 

Responses (81-91) :

81.

We now have enough responses to meet again to take stock.

ACB

[Group members, We will meet ACB after a couple of weeks, so do continue with your emails. Thanks, Vinay]

 82.

From: rajesh darak

Please look into the following practical suggestions :

1) ACB tel nos. and website should be mandatorily printed on every govt. letter head including CM's, CS's, Mayor's, Mun.Comm.'s, etc. at the bottom in normal SIZE.

2) All official mobile nos. of all govt. servants should be mandatorily printed on every letter sent by each one of them respectively and those of Officer / Inspector (or equivalent) designation and above should also be published on the website.

3) Every govt. servant who picks up the phone should mandatorily disclose his / her name & designation as soon as he / she picks up the phone. Even if this rule exists, it is not being followed except may be the police dept.

4) Every govt. official of the rank of officer / inspector & above should be mandatorily allotted an official email ID. If anyone sends spams or uses abusive language, such a person's email ID may be blocked. Every letter sent by any such govt. official must mandatorily contain his / her email ID.

5) Every govt. dept. must mandatorily have a website. The format / content headings must be common for all and very carefully designed so as to include all necessary information including suo moto disclosures under RTI Act, 2005. It should have a powerful search facility and should be extremely user-friendly.

6) All the above should be stricly monitored and implemented earnestly.

I request you to let me know whether any or all of these are accepted by the ACB / govt. or not. These are only preliminary steps and are not expensive to implement.

RD
darak786@gmail.com

83.

If you tell the members of Karmayog, you will definitely get a number of experts
in various disciplines. A large number of retired top executives/experts should
be available to assist any noble cause.

For example, if you want to have an expert group on elcetricity, there should be
a large number retired top executives from Tata Power Company, BSES and BEST who
should be able to tell us about the ongoing electricity problems and possible
solutions.

Maharashtra Govt. has messed up this after Enron which was based on imported gas
which is subject foreign exchange fluctuation.There is no addition to power
generation. The private sector is afraid to come as the sick MSEB, which ahas
monopoly in distribution, will be able to pay them for the generation.Then, the
Govt. gives power to farmers at very low rate or free. It also gives concession
to power looms. Then there is theft and it is called transmission and
distribution loss. And the result is the present situation.

M.D.Kini

[How to put together groups of experts or even interested individuals? We are
struggling to do so since 2 years! Vinay]

84.

From: kamalakant desai

We know the speed of  Indian life is moving fast with the world. Due to which there is no time to think that the act that is done by anybody is right OR wrong, the consequences of the  act or reaction. Which ultimately leads to the welfare of individual, family, society & Nation at large and last. India is a country of CULTURE, HERITAGE, BANDHU-BHAV with  BHARTIYA-TATWADNYAN has to be inculcated in everyday lifestyle by each & everyone, otherwise the statistical inferences that we read in newsparer  will be true in future, for next generation, & to save the Future Generation , we must Reduce the speed of LIFE-Style. WAIT & WATCH, but then if one has to reverse the process of COUNTRY the wait &watch has to be sidetrack, and immediately all of US to act Fast.

From - Dr. Desai

e;mail kamalakant1942@yahoo.com

Dr.Kamalakant Desai
Desai hospital - 24305307

[Sorry, life's too fast. Can't stop to read this and try to understand it. What to do? Regards, Vinay]

85.

From: Nandkumar Vagarya

Are we sincere enough to check the corruption. the record of ACB is also not encourging. many things could be suggested and shared but point is who will implement?
nandkumar.
nvagarya@yahoo.com

[1. Pl do suggest anyway.

2. Also, pl explain why the record of ACB is not encouraging.

Thanks, Vinay]

86.

[for those in the group not in Mumbai --- to inform that ACB is serious. ]

Top state official held for graft Water Supply Dept Secy Caught Taking Bribe, Faces Disproportionate Assets Case
S Ahmed Ali I TNN

Mumbai: A top officer in the Maharashtra g ove r n m e n t found himself
embroiled in both a bribery and a disproportionate assets case on Thursday.

M a d h av Vishwanath Domkondkar, 57, a secretary of the Maharashtra
Jeevan Pradhikaran (water supply department), was arrested by the
anti-corruption bureau (ACB) for accepting a bribe of Rs 50,000 from a
government contractor. But a bigger shock was in store when ACB officers
searched Domkondkar's Malabar Hill apartment and discovered assets worth
nearly Rs 2 crore in his possession.

The ACB charged Domkondkar with accepting a bribe as also holding
disproportionate assets. In his apartment they discovered he had Rs 11.8
lakh in cash, 22 accounts in various banks, four fixed deposits worth Rs 1
lakh each, flats in Thane and Borivli, a bungalow in Nanded, a hotel worth
Rs 25 lakh in Devgiri, two non-agricultural plots worth Rs 22 lakh each, Rs
1.53 lakh in the SBI Walkeshwar branch and many expensive household goods.
The authorities are still calculating the total value of the assets.

Domkondkar lives in the posh Ambar apartments at Malabar Hill, where
most of the state's top police officers, including directorgeneral of police
P S Pasricha, also reside. He became the third person from the same
department to be arrested in connection with the same contractor in the past
two years. His arrest is the biggest one of a state official since former
director-general of police (housing) Rahul Gopal was arrested in connection
with graft in 2005.

The government contractor who led the ACB to Domkondkar is carrying out
a Rs 16-crore project at the Amba river in Raigad district whose aim it is
to supply water to 44 villages. The contractor has been carrying out the
work since 2004 and has so far completed Rs 12 crore worth of work. The
contractor had filed two cases-one in an Alibaug court and another in the
Bombay High Court-with respect to the non-clearance of bills and work had
come to a standstill. In between, Domkondkar had allegedly approached the
contractor and demanded Rs 5 lakh in exchange for not cancelling the
remainder of his contract.

Tired of Domkondkar's demands, the contractor approached the ACB and
lodged a complaint. Domkondkar was allegedly caught red-handed accepting Rs
50,000 as the first installment in the bribe of Rs 5 lakh, said additional
superintendent of police (ACB) Vilas Tupe.

Incidentally, the ACB team first sent uniformed officers and not
plainclothes men to Domkondkar's residence because plainclothes men would
have had to complete several formalities before entering the premises, which
is guarded by many other policemen as the building houses several top IPS
officers. The uniformed men gained entry by saying they had come to meet an
IPS officer. In this manner, Domkondkar was not alerted beforehand.

ACB sources said additional commissioner (ACB) Pradyna Sarvade was
instrumental in carrying out the operation against such a senior officer.
Ahmed Ali

URL :
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JTS8yMDA3LzAzLzA5I0FyMDA\
zMDA=&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom

87.
From: ganesans

 The Indian jurisprudence needs a thorough overhauling in dealing with corruption. The statement by the Judges of Supreme Court that "corrupt be hanged in the nearest lamp post"  but they cannot do it under the existing law system is a clear admission of the judiciary'r frustration.in the matter.The observation has not come a day soon.

The long winding process of handling  cases of corruption in India is based on the antiquated British law  which is now more of academic interest, in that corrput go scott free by the time the case is inquired into and decision taken.Because of the delay many of those corrupt get a miore than life stature (eg.Lallau Prasad) and they live uninhibitedly.

In corrupt cases decisions should be time bound and punsihment instant and exemplarary- sending a message of fear to all.Unfortunately it does not exist and so the menace spreads.

As a  young boy I have studied in the history books how coruption was handled  in those days in our country.  Veluthampi Dalawa, a Diwan of the  native state of Travancore (1802 to 1810 A.D.) one day realised that at the oral instructions  of his own mother, a revenue official had undervalued the agricultural income of the Diwan's own property and  declared it no tax. On knowing of this,the Diwan summoned the official and got his fingers chopped off  because it was the offending limb; not content with that he got his mother's toungue too cut for propagating corrupt practices among the people.... the result it sent shock waves.

Nothing like physical pain and  humiliation will deterr corruption. There should be special courts to handle corruption cases and they should deal with the cases in a time bound  manner, with no right to appeal. The maximum time for examination of corrupt cases should be three months and the decision should be immediate and action instant. The corrupt should be publicly paraded, their properties confiscated and in deserving cases they should be hanged as the Supreme Court  judges opined or at least externed to some uninhabitated islands for the rest  of their life. It may look a bit barbaric in thinking but that alone will look- our present day chocolate coated deterrants will have no effect on corruption..

S.GANESAN
karlagan@mtnl.net.in

88.

From: Suresh Mehta

Transparency, transparency, transparency...
 
The introduction of RTI in 2005 is the single-largest reason for India to improve its corruption ranking from 88 in 2005 to 70 in 2006. See this article: http://politeindian.wordpress.com/2006/11/07/india-up-the-honesty-ladder/
 
This means that information held by these departments that is eligible for disclosure under RTI Act should necessarily be made public in 'real time'. In other words, all stages of procedures for individual transactions and applications that are not confidential (as defined under RTI) should be automatically posted online and disclosed, and should not be only disclosed if some person files an RTI application.
 
For example, suppose a developer is seeking permission from the BMC for construction of a building. Any citizen is entitled to know what the application states, what development permissions are being sought, what permissions have been granted/rejected, and reasons for the same. Also, the officers' names in charge of each section of the decision-making procedure can be disclosed.
 
The gov't should make it mandatory to post all this information online for public view. This allows transparency, and allows any citizen to immediately question any decisions made.
 
We have noticed fantastic improvements in govt procedures when they are under pressure of RTI.
 
This is the stick...
 
The carrot is to improve procedures through automation of workflow, reduction of repetitive/boring work, and constant a formal oversight committee/ombudsman for citizen-facing govt departments that comprise of representatives of citizens and business.

Suresh Mehta

89.

Do see Public Service Centre's book "Holding the State to Account" at-

http://www.karmayog.org/socialbooksmagsmoviesandcds/socialbooksmagsmoviesandcds_2970.htm

90.

Hierarchy of corruption

Recent arrests of secretary level government official, high profile
police officer and one Air Force official speak deep rooted
corruption in Indian society. CBI may drop few corruption
allegations as petty corruption issues but acceptance of bribe of
INR 50 from a 75 year old man for telephone is also corruption.
Answer to the big question, why senior officials do not entertain
corruption complaints is Hierarchy of Corruption.

Corruption can be classified in so many ways. Individual corruption
and organizational corruption is one way to classify the corruption.
Organization corruption is dangerous, alarming and increasing.
Mostly senior officials accept bribe through their close associate
or subordinates. Few seniors are dare devil enough to accept of
their own. Few juniors ask in the name of seniors. And at places
there is link and chain in corruption pyramid. I have seen one
person maintaining percentage wise chart for bribe amounts received
or to be collected during particular month. Those who refuse to be
part of this corruption cartel are either sidelined or transferred.
This Hierarchy of Corruption needs to be demolished.

Although few surveys claim that India's position has bettered in
transparency, on the contrary corruption has increased by many
folds. Recent remark by Supreme Court judge that corrupt should be
hanged is not at all surprise as ex-Governor of Maharashtra has
publicly uttered the same thing. Ink on paper fades and depth of
statements dither and corruption increases.

In order to tackle the monster of corruption society GenNext should
support individuals who fight corruption and dump those bigwigs who
support corruption. Agencies and verdicts will play their role but
if we at all wish to tackle corruption our generation should take
corrupt head on. Well admission time is coming and who is taking
admission where and who is sponsoring whose education fees can be
good exercise to raise voice against corruption.

Bribe Still Not Paid To BSNL
Avinash Murkute
 

91.

This is yet another good initiative by you. I have the following observations that might be of help.

 1. On-line availability of information would help: it will reduce processing time and increase transparency. I give an example from the passport office. A couple of months ago we applied for our daughter’s passport. The on-line system of information indicates some basic information and the stage of processing of ones application. Something similar can be adapted to wherever it is applicable in the RTO and other departments. This can be done on a real time basis to reduce cost and time. As soon as an application is submitted the receiving official keys in information that is automatically queued to be uploaded to the internet at the end of the day.

            Having praised the on-line information of the passport application system let me point out a problem. In our case the on-line information indicated a wrong date of birth. If the passport was issued with this wrong date then the whole process leading to the issue of a passport with correct information would have to be repeated. We needed to correct this before the passport was issued, but this could not be done electronically. We did send an email and fax, but never received any acknowledgement and when we could get through the helpline we were told that we have to go in person to the office. This was avoided by approaching their public relations through some channels not available for the lay person. These also need to be streamlined. Make available all facilities for all persons and wherever possible by making use of the electronic medium. Give the volume of application to be processed there is likely to be a deluge of information, but then the streamlining should also address this.

            Availability of information on a real time basis to everybody (address secrecy/privacy wherever applicable) and not only to individuals who ask for it will also concur with the right to information (RTI). For instance, information like total number of application received, number disposed, number cancelled, the reasons for cancellation, if cancelled then the possibility of future action if any.

 2. Rawls’ original position: “In the original position, the parties (who are to take a decision) are not allowed to know the social positions or the particular comprehensive doctrines of the persons they represent. They also do not know persons’ race and ethnic group, sex, or various native endowments such as strength and intelligence, all within the normal range. We express these limits on information figuratively by saying the parties are behind a veil of ignorance.” Invoking of the original position is meant to do away the bargaining advantages or vested interests.  It is true that the original position is an abstract thought experiment and ideal concept, but nevertheless such an idea would be of help.

Srijit
srijit_nandini