“Corruption is ultimately paid by the poor, rich enjoy it”
Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is an apex Indian government body created in 1964 to address governmental corruption. The Parliament enacted a law in 2003 conferring statutory status on the CVC as an autonomous body, free of control from any executive authority, to monitor vigilance activity.CVC advises Central Govt organisations in planning, executing, reviewing and reforming vigilance work.
CVC deals only with vigilance & disciplinary cases. It has supervisory powers over CBI.CVC does not have adequate resources compared with the number of complaints it receives. It is a very small setup with a sanctioned staff strength of 299. It is supposed to check corruption in more than 1500 central government departments and ministries. CVC is fighting with tied hands and gloves on. Despite odds for over 57 years, it has successfully contained corruption. Unfortunately, till date It is not a deterrent to petty corruption which impedes India’s march forward repeatedly.
India eagerly awaits its watchdog to curb petty corruption and looks forward to CVC to replicate its experience of curbing big ticket corruption into nipping its petty version, which is more dangerous than the large corruption. It impacts the common man directly day to day while dealing with government offices for basic services in hospitals, schools, police departments and driving license agencies. Large scams, while imposing a cost on society as a whole, and occupying public imagination, do not actually touch the lives of ordinary people and businesses, but petty corruption does.
“India has the highest overall bribery rate (39%) and the highest rate of citizens using personal connections (46%), following India, Indonesia and China have the second and third highest rates of people using personal connections with 36% and 32% respectively” as per Transparency International. It notes that in India, 50% of those involved in bribery are asked to bribe, while 32% of those who used personal connections say they will not receive the service otherwise. Conversely, in Japan and Cambodia, a small minority of those who access public services use their personal connections, only 4%, and 6%.
“Of the people surveyed in India, who came into contact with the police, 42% had paid bribes. The use of bribes was also rampant (41%) to obtain official documents such as identity papers. Use of personal connections is largely made in dealings with the police (39%), procurement of identity documents (42%), and in relation to courts (38%)”.India is in the 80th position among 180 countries in Corruption Perception Index.
Petty corruption is as expensive to society as large scams. It cannot be tolerated as it de-lubricates the economic machine. Petty corruption afflicts those government processes and approvals that are deemed operationally critical and urgent. Hold-up of clearance and movement of goods, dealing with fines, on-site inspections or approvals, access to utilities, submission of documents to courts and other statutory bodies, can cause a paralysing delay to any business or individual. Such acts create bottlenecks in our economic and social machine, imposing a huge cost in terms of efficiency and effectiveness
Petty corruption directly impacts investor confidence, entrepreneurship and economic growth. Investment plans of foreign investors depend on information from the ear to the ground. A system that considers ‘petty payments’ a birthright and helps create an eco-system of agents and touts can never be transparent, efficient, and fair.
Ten Steps to Avoid Petty Corruption
1. Establishment of Petty Corruption Cell in CVC
The main source of petty corruption is ‘fixing’ & ‘facilitating’ day-to-day transactions with government agencies. Those who can bribe to fix, succeed, leaving the ‘have-nots’ way behind in the prosperity ladder of society. In order to curb this bane, Central Vigilance Commission may be permitted to open virtual offices in all districts of the country to accept online complaints of petty corruption in the native language. The District Vigilance Commissioner may close complaints online in15 days in three hearings.
2. Digitalising all Payments above Rs.5000
Digitalising all payments above Rs.5000 shall facilitate rapid implementation of transparency measures in governance for schemes like the direct subsidy transfers, stipulating the expiration date of industrial licenses, e-court projects that allow e-filing and e-payments, and IT enablement of taxation and customs.
3. Cash-Tax on Cash Payments above Rs.5000
Successful approaches to tackle petty corruption involve using taxation as a tool. All cash payments above Rs.5000 should carry a tax of 2% as cash tax. The information of corrupt spenders must be captured to create fear in petty corruption.
4. Three Visit Policy for Borrowers in All Banks
Measures aimed at reducing red tape, enforcing prompt sanctions are needed. As a rule, all loans should be sanctioned or rejected in a maximum of three visits to the Bank by the borrower as familiarity breeds corruption.
5. Issue of Online Birth, Death Certificates, Ration Cards
All governments should issue cards/certificates of birth, death, migration, ration, experience, solvency virtually & online.
6. Online Bids for Allotting Works Above Rs.25000
All establishments whether in the public or private sector should allot works in day to day life through Online bids
7. IT Enabled Cashless Custom Duty Deposit Process
No Custom authority be permitted to accept custom duty in cash. All duty/fees should be deposited through banks through IT-enabled straight-through processes at ports.
8. Establishment of e-Audit National Portal for All Auditors
All chartered accountants should mandatorily prepare financial statements and forensic audit reports along with Income Tax returns on a centralised audit software portal, which can not be rewritten or overwritten. Many CAs have become money minting machines through doctored audit and forensic inspection reports. An eAudit National Portal be formed to wire tax data.
9. Faceless Property Sale Without Meet of Seller & Buyer
Land deals generate the maximum amount of petty corruption. Replicate the Canada model of sale of property where escrow account is opened with the Registrar of Properties, who cross checks circle rates and passes on sale proceeds to seller electronically in electronic bids.No face to face meetings are held between buyer and seller. All legs of the land transaction including, valuation, purchase, sale and registration be online under the supervision of accredited law firms recognised by Courts of Law.
10. Appearance of Corrupt People Names on CIBIL Portals
Area-specific task forces to be set up to analyse micro-transaction. Task forces dedicated to customs, transport & industrial licenses to be formed, drawing membership from industry practitioners, regulatory experts and bureaucracy. Names of corrupt people to be published on the site of CVC and shared with Credit Rating Agencies like CRISIL, ACUITE, INDIA Ratings, CARE, ICRA etc. to make the delinquent person ineligible for funding. “When you don’t take a stand against corruption, you tacitly support it.”
There are no summary courts to inhibit the crime. The time to curb petty corruption is here, now, right now. If the republic fails the people, the people are likely to fail the republic. Rightly said, “ The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but those who watch them without doing anything.”
About author
Mr. Hargovind Sachdev is an Ex-Banker, GM(Retd) of State Bank of India. Has over 39 years of experience in banking, having occupied senior positions in UCO Bank, United Bank of India, State Bank of Patiala, State Bank of Travancore & State Bank of India where he headed the Central European Credit Desk at Frankfurt, Germany from 2006 to 2011 covering 15 countries of Central Europe. Has undergone International Banking Training from Asian Institute of Management, Manila, the Philippines in the Year 2003 and a Multi-currency lending-technique training at the Euro Money Institute, London in 2009.
He has specialisation in Credit, Foreign Exchange, Vigilance, Monitoring & appraisal of Corporate Loans, MSME Credit, Gold Loans, Agricultural Loans & NRI Business Management in assets & liabilities. As a Forensic Auditor, he has conducted various Transaction Audits allotted by Banks.
He was felicitated by the Central Vigilance Commissioner, Sh. C.V Chowdhry for winning first prize for best article on Preventive Vigilance in 2015. He is also an accomplished Public Speaker having conducted multiple Motivational Seminars for institutions like ONGC, the National Housing Bank & the Bank of Baroda. He is an Independent Director & consultant to various big entities in the corporate sector at present.
