0 combating corruption
1.The first tool is ‘education’. With the help of education we can reduce corruption. According to a report by Transparency International, the least corrupt state is Kerala, the reason being that Kerala’s literacy rate is highest in India. So we can see how education effects education. In most of the states, normally a fairly large number of people are uneducated. Those who are uneducated do not know about the process, provisions and procedures through which they can get justice. Corrupt public servants try to make a fool of them and often demand bribes. It is due to unawareness in the field of law, public rights and procedures thereof that a common and an uneducated suffer out of the corrupt society. This suggests that if we are educated, we can understand our rights well.
2. We need to change the government processes. If the members of the governing body are government officials, there will certainly be less reports of the criminal cases. The reverse may be possible only when there are no more criminal politicians in our government. The provision is that, if there is any case filed against a person then he would not be eligible for election. But if we see 100 politicians then about 60% of those would have a criminal case against them. If these ‘criminal’ politicians are in charge of forming and implementing laws, what type of law would be formed, one can only guess! Thus during election, we should keep in mind the person for whom we shall not vote. In India there is a provision that no person as a criminal shall be allowed as a Member of Parliament or member of legislative. Unfortunately a fairly large number of them are a part of it.
3. We can reduce corruption by increasing direct contact between government and the governed. E-governance could help a lot towards this direction. In a conference on, “Effects of Good Governance and Human Rights“ organised by National Human Right Commission, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam gave an example of the Delhi metro rail system and online railway reservation as good governance and said that all the lower courts should follow the example of the Supreme Court and High Court and make judgements available online. Similarly, Sivraj Patil said that the Right to information should be used for transparency. We have legal rights to know a lot of information. According to this act, (Right to Information act 2005), generally people should follow the procedure of law given to then when their work is not being implemented in a proper way in public services. This act is a great help in the order to control corruption.
4. Lack of effective corruption treatment is another reason. That means, instruments which are in use, are not running properly. Despite the Prevention of Corruption Act 1988, corruption is still flourishing. Why? Because of weak actions and proceedings towards corrupt people. People don’t have any fear of this act and the court. The act may thus be revised for its better implementation.
5. Lack of transparency and professional accountability is yet another big reason. We should be honest to ourselves. Until and unless we will not be honest, we can’t control corruption. If each of us is honest towards our profession, then corruption will automatically decrease. We need to pay attention towards professional accountability i.e., how much we are faithful and truthful towards our profession. Corruption may be controlled by handling five major professions: lekhpal, medical, revenue, police and judicial.
5 Places Where Corruption Exists:
1. Lekhpal, a government official, whose job is to examine, report and keep all records of lands. But recently, there have been a lot of cases in the court, which are based on land dispute. Why is it so? This is due to the flaws in the department of lekha vibhag. As far as this department is concerned, if the people pay attention towards professional accountability, land disputes can be considerably reduced, or resolved faster. This would account for a fairly large control over corruption.
2. Another type of profession where corruption is rampant is the medical sector. How? There are many government hospitals and public health centres in villages and cities. There are some doctors, appointed for the treatment of the people. But in government hospitals, there is hardly ever proper treatment for the common man. Doctors have started opening their own private clinic to earn more money. The public hospitals lack adequate medicines and other required facilities. Doctors may not be found on the scheduled timings. The poor people, who only depend upon the government hospitals, are suffering since they can’t afford treatment from the private hospital. If the doctors would come in time, and in hospital there is sufficient medicines and proper treatment available, then most of the people would have been healthy. Thus doctors need to give their job professional accountability.
3. Third one is the revenue department. In this department, a fairly large number of the employees are corrupt. They take bribes and leave the person who didn’t even give tax off the hook. For e.g. income tax. If every person is honest towards his/her profession then a heavy loss of Indian government may be saved.
4. There is a lot of crime around us and criminals are doing their work without any fear. If police becomes serious then there will be control over corruption to the extent of nearly, say about 60-70%. They should perform their duty honestly. The day all the officers will be serious towards their profession, we may expect a corruption-free environment.
5. And last but not the least, is the department of judiciary. We know there are several lakh cases which are pending in the courts in India. The process of justice is very delayed in our country. Due to this, the numbers of cases are increasing day by day. If the proceedings are fast, people may see that if they do wrong or commit any crimes then they will have to face punishment. People thus will hesitate to take bribe. To recall and mention a famous quote here, ‘Justice delayed is justice denied’.
STRATEGIC CHALLENGES IN FIGHTING CORRUPTION
The real challenges in the struggle against corruption reach into all sectors of society and include efforts to restrict illegal money flows, state capture, the ever-larger funding sources feeding corruption and the need to dampen ingrained fears of corrupt officials.
A. ILLICIT FLOWS
- The World Economic Forum’s global risk report from January 2010 said illicit trade represents between seven and 10 percent of the global economy. It cited corruption as one of the major risks to stability and economic recovery.
- Much is being done to hide illegal profits. Some tax havens, for example, have more registered companies and trusts per capita than industrial states: 40 companies are registered in the Virgin Islands for every citizen that lives there.
- The Cayman Islands has a population of 50,000, yet 70 per cent of the world’s hedge funds are registered there. Banks resident there held more than $1.7 trillion in assets at the end of 2008.
B. STATE CAPTURE
- Another top challenge is state capture. We can no longer ignore the connection between financial opacity and the world’s most dangerous and destructive criminals.
- In the past years press reports revealed how drug gangs launder billions of dollars and kill anyone in their way from judges to attorneys. When criminal gangs take on so much power and wealth, and hold so much sway over state institutions, we can start to talk about state capture.
- In capitals around the world many lobbyists actively work to prevent the passage of new laws and regulations, and their enforcement. As an example, the revolving door spins furiously in places like Washington and Brussels as former politicians and regulators join banks and then lobby their old colleagues to ease the rules governing the financial industry.
- It is clear that more often than not, contributions to candidates and to political parties are used to purchase future support for the contributors’ company and interests.
- In some Latin American and other cities and states around the world, drug cartels have a growing influence over local governments and rule by fear, and by buying the support of the judiciary, and government, at all levels.
- With this in mind it is unsettling to note that the Inter-American Development Bank estimates the cost of violence generated by organised crime at US$168 billion in Latin America as a whole.
C. RESOURCES FOR CORRUPTION