How to Reduce Corruption?
Talk by Vinay Somani to the officers of the
Principal Accountant General’s Office (Audit) – Maharashtra,
during Vigilance Awareness Week - 27-10-2010
Introduction
1) Transformation
Polio, Education, Slums, Toilets. Hence Corruption
2) When to start reducing corruption?
Tree. Hence time to reduce corruption is now
3) What can one organization do to reduce corruption?
Organisational centres of excellence:
Tata Memorial Hospital, Akshay Patra Foundation, Dabbawalas
Hence, possible for any organisation
4) How to start reducing corruption?
- Each person must have pride for the country
- Germany+Japan, Italy, USA
- India: Democracy, Defence. Police+Judicial system
- we want to be proud of PAG
5) Provide leadership
- represent the govt., represent the people
- leadership does not automatically happen
6) Audit as a representative of citizens. E.g. BMC and roads
7) Our experiences at Karmayog
i. M-PAC – the Mumbai Pact Against Corruption
ii. Common perceptions of government by citizens
(ACB, BMC, stone-throwing)
iii. Interaction between citizens and government – need to correct perception
iv. Steps to improve public perception and interaction
(professionals, NGOs, citizen meetings, seminars, counterparts from other
countries)
v. Communication: -- the importance of the Audit Report to all – via Press
conference
vi. Open up a line of access to rural NGOs
vii. De-mystify PAG’s role via website
viii. Encourage citizens to send feedback
ix. Corruption ROKO form
Closing Statement
Introduction:
I am extremely pleased to be here today at the office of the Principal Accountant General of Maharashtra, to speak to you all on the occasion of the Vigilance Awareness Week, and I thank Madam Pattanayak and Shri Rajendran for inviting me here.
This is not only a great opportunity for us to interact in this manner with officers of a government organisation, but also the fact that we have never ever met anyone from this department before, and have still been found out and invited by you’ll, is very satisfying.
1) Can an entire country be transformed?
I would like to start with by looking at what transformations have happened and can happen in the entire country.
At one point in our country’s history, many of us could not have imagined that polio could be eradicated from India. Today, polio has been removed from India, in all but a few districts, and the generations of children born in India today are free from this disease.
Similarly, one could not imagine that the entire population of our country (over 1 billion people) can all get educated. Today we are moving towards that goal with initiatives like the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan and the Right To Education Act.
Most of us today cannot imagine cities and towns in India without slums, or adequate toilets for all. But there are already entire districts in Maharashtra where no person has to relieve themselves in the open.
The same applies for corruption.
While many people may believe that corruption cannot be eradicated from India, we believe that it can and will be.
The process to eradicate corruption involves several steps such as:
- systemic changes
- appropriate tightening and loosening of controls
- simple, practical and do-able laws and regulations
- making information available easily
- etc.
But this is not what I will be speaking about today.
2) When to start reducing corruption?
When things are so messy and complicated, often we don’t know where to start or how to start working towards a solution. Hence, very often we don’t even start.
Let’s recall the question, “When is the best time to plant a tree?” The best time was 50 years ago – the 2nd best time is now.
Similarly, the time to start reducing corruption is right now.
3) But what can one organisation do to reduce corruption?
There are many examples of organisations that have become centres of excellence in our own city:
- the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital – it’s the foremost cancer hospital in the country.
- the Akshay Patra Foundation – which runs the largest school meal programme in the world and provides mid-day meals to 12 lakh children in India every single day.
- the Dabbawallas of Mumbai – who have developed the most low-cost and efficient system for hot meal delivery in the world
Islands of excellence like these, which we know about ourselves, show that it is doable to achieve similar success for any organization, in any sphere that it so decides.
4) So how to start reducing corruption?
First and foremost, what is needed is for each of us to pride for our country.
All countries and nations that have come up and achieved great success have great pride in some aspect of their work.
e.g. Germany and Japan are proud of their work ethic and hence have become leaders in manufacturing
Italy is proud of its creative abilities and this has led to it becoming a centre of design excellence – not only for clothes, but also for cars.
America is proud of its innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, and this has helped it become a super-power.
Similarly, we must find things that we are proud of about India.
For example, we take pride in being a Democracy.
We are proud of our Defence Services.
Till some time back, we were very proud of our Police and our Judicial system; this is slowly waning.
When we are proud of our country, and proud of the work that we are doing, then corruption reduces as we are no longer willing to tolerate it.
We, as citizens, would like to be proud of the office of the Principal Accountant General as one that is clear, firm and efficient. We would like to believe that this government office ensures that public money – our money - is audited properly.
5) Leadership is necessary
You wear the ‘government’ hat and thus think of yourselves as representing the government, reporting to the government. But the government itself represents the people, and hence you and your organization actually represent the people.
Therefore leadership must come to each of you’ll with this sense and with this understanding of the bigger purpose – that you’ll are representing the people. This is something that you may forget in the daily grind, and thus needs to be continually emphasized.
Leadership needs to be pro-active; it doesn’t automatically follow, and it’s not enough to have a small group at the top providing leadership – each of you has to show leadership individually.
Within any organization, there is a struggle between people who are positive, negative and indifferent. The challenge of leadership is how to get everyone in a positive frame of mind.
6) Do the Audit as a representative of citizens
Your office audits the BMC and other bodies in Mumbai such as MMRDA, MHADA, etc. Once you know the public’s views on how services are delivered by these agencies that you audit, it can bring new dimensions into the auditing system.
e.g. roads in Mumbai under MCGM.
Either you know what citizens think about the roads (through media, etc.) or there is a system for public views to reach you (through feedback invited on your behalf) – once you have this feedback, you can look at the audit in this context, and have a far greater impact and effect on improving people’s lives.
7) Our experiences at Karmayog
In a democracy like India, sustainable solutions to society’s problems can only be found though the collaboration and involvement of all stakeholders that includes government, corporates, academicians, media, civil society organisations and ordinary citizens.
Karmayog is a unique organisation that connects such stakeholders through online and offline methods.
The online resources of Karmayog encompass researched modules on over 350 civic and social causes, listing laws, policies, white papers, organisations in the field, useful links, etc. Karmayog also has the most comprehensive directory of civil society organisations in India (16,000) and has an active discussion group of 60,000 people who daily share their concerns, opinions, ideas, news, etc., Karmayog acts as a platform and a bridge to all those who wish to do their bit to improve their locality, city and country. We reach out to another 2 lakh people to whom we send useful information from time to time.
i) M-PAC – the Mumbai Pact Against Corruption
In 2006, Karmayog participated in the Mumbai - Pact Against Corruption (M-PAC), an initiative along with the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Maharashtra. The main premise of M-Pac is that corruption can be eliminated only with the active participation of the community & hence M-PAC aims to involve each individual in the fight against corruption.
Our learnings from M-PAC that are relevant to the PAG:
ii) Addressing Public Perception
Citizens tend to often view the government officials to be uncaring, or incompetent (having got posts through means other than merit) or as being out there to make money.
When we first started working with the Anti-Corruption Bureau, the first reactions were that ACB itself has corrupt officers.
Similarly when we worked with the BMC – people said that there is no point working with the BMC as the BMC officials are corrupt and not interested in solving citizen’s problems.
It took strenuous efforts to dispel these notions and work in a constructive way which then finally yielded very effective results.
The reason why it is important to correct and change public perception of this sort is illustrated in the following example:
When Karmayog recently asked citizens for suggestions to help the police tackle stone-throwing incidents, some of the responses were startling, viz. the police are corrupt and never help the innocent and powerless, so let them get hurt.
iii) Interaction between citizens and government
We have seen that the interface between citizens and government is missing, or, at best, inadequate. While the media plays some role in this interface, it usually gives a limited, biased and fleeting view.
It is difficult for Government organisations and officers to come into contact with ordinary citizens who have no vested interests. In the absence of such interactions, good government officers tend to become demoralized and a feeling of helplessness sets in.
Actually, there is a lot of support from educated, intelligent, capable, concerned citizens of India who are in effective positions in business, academia, etc. People are keen to develop the country. Do remember that the public would like to support your initiatives.
Inputs from ordinary citizens gives insights and ideas for solutions which would otherwise remain unknown by government.
iv) But how can government tap into such people?
There are several possibilities e.g.
v. Communicating the importance of the Audit Report to all
The Audit Reports are professional and technically sound, but could be difficult to understand for those without an accounting background. Hence at the time of public release of Audit Reports, it would be useful to call a Press Conference / Public meeting.
The questions that the Press asks are usually questions which citizens would like to know about.
vi. Open up a line of access to rural NGOs
PAG does a wonderful audit of rural local bodies including Panchayati Raj institutions
This is an extremely important role of the PAG. We would suggest that PAG hold a meeting for rural NGOs and discuss the report with them. Rural NGOs tend to be cut off from several such forums where feedback and dialogue happens. PAG should open up a line of access to them.
vii. Demystify the PAG’s role for citizens
Through your website, please help citizens know and understand the role and importance of PAG. Invite feedback about your website.
On the website, put up a list of Best Practices in Public Audits in India, as well as your recommendations to various government departments.
viii. Do encourage the public to write to you’ll about how public funds are being utilized
eg. Suppose water pumps have been purchased for a particular rural area by the government. There can be 2 types of corruption in such a situation: a) where the goods are purchased at a high price and are of low quality, and b) where the goods are purchased and are not installed and not used as intended. In the first type of corruption, there is a loss of public funds, and in the second case, there is negative impact to citizens, who do not receive services and goods meant for them.
While the Audit can perhaps find out information regarding prices, it is not possible to know whether the pumps are working or not, unless this is pointed out by the public (users). Therefore citizens should be explicitly asked (via the website) to inform PAG when they come across shoddy products or services from the government.
The Audit team can conduct a ‘spot check’ to verify the feedback and also think of how to modify audit parameters so as to increasingly capture such information by the audit procedure itself. Eg. Including ‘Date of purchase’, and ‘Date of installation’ as necessary documentation.
ix. Corruption ROKO – Corruption Report On Karmayog Online
(ROKO = Stop in Hindi, hence Stop Corruption)
While citizens are often to complain and report to government, they are not willing to reveal their names, or even disclose their phone number or email Ids. Our experiences at M-PAC has led us to develop a form – the Corruption ROKO form, that enables citizens to report instances of corruption as well as to suggest how to stop such instances of corruption. 360 forms have been filled and are available online on our website.
We would suggest that the PAG also put up a similar form on PAG website, to encourage citizens to report on areas where they feel that public funds are being mis-used.
Conclusion:
So, let each of us here today have the firm belief that :
Thank you