Nothing in our country moves without bribery. To stop this practice, the Government, instead of setting up various committees, must focus on making governance citizen-friendly and not bloat the bureaucracy
The workings of the Indian bureaucracy is such that the work for which jobs has to be created, the bureaucracy, instead of diverting the surplus staff, creates more posts. Whether required or not, new committees and commissions are created for no reason except but to create post-retirement jobs for themselves.
British journalist Walter Bagehot rightly said that a bureaucracy is sure to think that its duty is to augment official power, official business, or official members. This is very much applicable in the Indian context. It overdoes the quantity of Government, as well as impairs its quality. The truth is that a skilled bureaucracy, though it boasts of an appearance of science, is quite inconsistent with the true principles of the art of business.
It is a sad truth that no Government voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programmes once launched, never disappear. Actually, a bureaucracy is the nearest thing to the eternal life we shall ever see on this earth.
It is alright for the bureaucracy to write garbage in the most beautiful language. It is a deliberate policy and not a coincidence that trust in the Government is at an all-time low as the size of the Government is at an all-time high.
No one spends someone else’s money as wisely as he spends his own. You cannot be for a big Government, big tax and big bureaucracy and still be of service to the little guys, like me and millions of my compatriots.
When in service, I once dropped into one of my friend’s time who was occupying the post of a secretary to the Government of India. Seeing his table full of files, after spending a few minutes, I got up and apologised for dropping in. He insisted that I spend some more time with him.
I said that it will be unfair for me to divert him from his work when a lot of files are awaiting his orders. He smiled and said that these are disposed off old files. To give an impression that he has plenty of work, they are kept on the table in front of him. I said that I am foxed. Could he please enlighten me the work he does from nine in the morning to six in the eveningIJ He amplified that the best way is to stack the old files so that nobody gets an impression that a particular official is under-worked, leading to the eliminating of a post.
Actually, when he joined his department, he had only four current files. When he disposed off one of the four files, his private secretary came to his room and apologised for advising him. He said that as it is, there is no work in this department, which actually provides jobless jobs to those who have displeased their political bosses. He suggested that my friend should go on making quarries after quarries and keep on asking the views of the other department. The above example is quoted to show that there are plenty of commissions, committees and departments which can be abolished without making any difference to governance.
Infact, about the total number of Government employees, one leading daily has quoted more than one Government source, showing the vast difference in the figures of Government employees.
One estimate says that there are 38.76 lakh employees in the Central Government alone, 50 lakh in Public Sector Units (Central and State combined) alone. Add to this, the State Government and autonomous bodies (including central universities). It will be around two crore employees (may be more), according to 2001 census.
In our country, nothing moves without bribery with a few exceptions. At the drop of a hat, a committee or a commission is set up for all kinds of work and then they are forgotten. No amount of lecture or committee will end corruption. It is for the simple reason that laws are so framed that even if a person is caught red handed or if he has assets beyond his known sources, there are impossible laws and evidence required to prove the case. Clerks, Chief Managing Directors, in banks and other organisations, have been caught red handed, demanding and accepting bribes.
According to a report published in June this year, in the past nine years, nearly 800 Government employees of Punjab, including 125 senior gazetted officers, have shamed the State as they were caught red-handed indulging in corrupt practices. While nabbing these ‘corrupt’ officials, vigilance sleuths also seized currency notes worth `1.31 crore from the spot to establish the charges.
After conducting nationwide raids over 15 days, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered disproportionate assets cases against 14 Government officials, six of whom are Group A officers. The total registered value of the assets has been computed to `38.47 crore but their market value could be over `250 crore.
The CBI recovered incriminating documents from these 14 officials, pointing to disproportionate assets. They include three Group B officers and five Group C officers. The CBI has also booked wives of two officials. According to the CBI, the biggest case has been made out against deputy general manager of Hindustan Handicraft and Handloom Export Corporation, who had amassed 27 properties in posh localities of Mumbai, Thane, Noida and Gorakhpur.
While their cumulative registered value is `25 crore, their market value is more than `200 crore. Apart from the above, the CBI also registered cases against a senior manager (electronics and telecom), BCCl, Dhanbad, administrative officer, New India Assurance divisional office in Murshidabad; the then passport officer in Goa, deputy manager (regional office), New India Assurance in Surat, and superintendent (Central) Excise, Madurai. If any proof is required to prove that we have a nincompoop system of laws, the following statement of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on March 14, in Parliament is self explanatory: “You take legal action where recoveries are to be made. And here I must tell you it's a big challenge to the legal system. The most visible of defaulters are managing to even escape out of the country...A question we need to ask ourselves did the legal system also act as a hurdle in the recoveryIJ How many cases the banks in the last three years have had to fight against such people and this is for every institution to now look within.”
It is not a problem which cannot be solved in 24 hours. Just turn the law upside by putting the onus on the suspected Government employee or his family, the onus of proving that whatever property or money he has been legally acquired from his known sources of income. Give a time frame to all public servants to account for whatever they have as at the time of joining service and every year a Government employee has to file his both moveable and immovable property.
The Government should stop wasting tax payers money on various commissions or committees, just to accommodate retiring or retired Government employees and focus on making governance citizen-friendly and deliver results and not bloat the swelling bureaucracy. The present Government should perish the idea of add two lakhs more Government employees. Instead the work should be assigned and accountability imposed on shirkers.