Accountability in Public life

For one to be branded with the epithet “corrupt” a few decades ago was considered disgraceful and repulsive and reason enough to be socially ostracized. Today one learns that the art of corruption is a talent by itself. Yes ! Times have changed. But there are two truisms which will never change. First, the malaise of corruption is not endemic. What is questionable is the extent to which it is deep-rooted in any society. Two, corruption at first sight could convey a perspective of suspicious financial transactions alone. But that is too narrow a view to hold. Corruption today encompasses the ideological, moral and ethical values of society and almost every sphere of life.

The tone and clarity with which former and present Prime Ministers renewed the pledge of ethics in public office, to root out corruption, on every anniversary of our nation’s independence day has heartily welcomed by all right thinking citizens. It is also encouraging to hear some of the prominent Chief Minister’s echo the same message. But like many such pledges in the past, this may also remain a mere rhetoric and go into oblivion, unless converted into a policy statement, driven by consensus across party lines and supported by effective enabling systems to ensure transparency, measurement, accountability and prompt enforcement of punishments and rewards, commensurate with levels of office where such violations do or do not take place.

First of all as a national, we must embrace democracy as the norm for all recruitments, placement, transfers and promotions as opposed to a system where “contacts and chromosomes matter more than competency” to quote a famous economist. Meritocracy is the very foundation of most efficient economies particularly in a democratic setup, as evidenced by the world’s second largest democracy. One of the major contributors to our poor record in innovation and product in competition is the absence of meritocracy and accountability.

There is no better way to plant the seeds of corruption, than to provide postings to favoured sons with the only expectations of personal gains in return, In this context, one must reiterate that accountability for performance i.e., value addition towards cost, quality, promptness of service and customer satisfaction has to be top priority and being easier to monitor, will act as a strong deterrent to corruption.

Without a system of meritocracy and accountability at all levels, watching corruption alone will create a fear psychosis and enable mediocre people, who neither take any risk to innovate nor empower others an just keep their hands clean and influence those in right places, to move up the ladder regardless of poor performance and perhaps with a much more negative long term impact on their organisation’s goals.

The whole concept of lifelong job security of our services on the sole basic of an examination taken in their twenties makes a mockery of accountability and meritocracy. There needs to a system of periodic examination by a panel of non-services cadre members, to certify fitness for jobs, promotions and postings and competitions in the open market for contractual positions of Joint Secretaries and above. In the long term, our education system needs to be overhauled to produce self-confident, employable and entrepreneurial citizens; focused on contributions they can make their jobs rather than their degree and diplomas as license for job security. An effective social security net for redeployment and protection of the weak is a much better option than nepotism and over employments of the incompetent in the work place.

Transparency of the procurement process and minimum information guidelines including decision criteria for major purchases by the government and expert committees with external members, nominated for specific requirements, attached each ministry and state governments will go a long way to boost public confidence in government actions.

It is generally recognized that rampant corruption with no accountability for project cost, quality and time have put nation’s decades behind in their development process and competitiveness. Thus the level of prevailing corruption and its impact on critical projects cost and quality parameters needs to be measured and benchmarked against other developing and developed countries, who are our trading partners and communicated to the public on an ongoing basis to create an awareness. Reduce apathy and demonstrate the effectiveness of the eradication process.

Streamlining the legal machinery to screen politically motivated accusations particularly against high performers and promptly resolve while collar criminal cases to reward the innocent and award maximum punishment to the offenders commensurate with their economic status, is a prerequisite to sustain this drive.

One finds it hard to believe as the Prime Minister said that it was easy to eliminate corruption at the top and difficult at lower levels. If it was so, then let’s start at the top to lead by example which will be reinforced by a national consensus on ethics and spread the culture of learning through value addition, consumer rights and pride in customer satisfaction which form the backbone of the reform process across all the ministries and internal hierarchies, down to the weakest citizen and be sustained by a fair and transparent system of accountable meritocracy. One must recognize that corruption is not just taking bribes. It includes in a large measure, abuse of power to distribute largesse to near and dear ones and enjoy VIP privileges for travel, security and healthcare etc that are obscenely out of proportion to the common man’s standard of living in a poor democracy or for that matter even other advanced countires. As one said “corruption is hardly driven by one’s need particularly in the organized sector. It is really the greed that feeds it and there is more of the latter at the top!

By JAVVADI LAKSHMANA RAO