Codes for political executive, civil servants to check corruption
Posted by egovernanceNew Delhi, Nov 07: Unscrupulous leaders and bureaucrats
beware. Codes for the political executive and civil servants are in the
offing.
With India being projected as one of the most corrupt nations in the world,
the Administrative Reforms Commission (ARC) plans to come out soon with a
set of codes for political executive and civil servants, to counter the
trend.
The codes are being contemplated as part of the commission`s mandate to
suggest measures to cleanse the system of corruption and inefficiency and to
fix accountability, its chairman Veerappa Moily said.
In an interview the former Karnataka Chief Minister said the codes are being
thought of as “you cannot deal with corruption in a soft way” and with a
firm belief that “honest system will displace dishonest men”.
Regretting the tendency of always aiming at soft targets, he said the ARC
favoured the codes to be the roadmap for total accountability and
transparency.
The commission planned to come out with report on the issue of ethics in
governance which would include the course, he said, adding the ARC would
also soon go into the issue of reforms in the civil services in the wake of
changed scenario.
Besides, the commission is also deliberating on strengthening the Lok Pal
and the Lok Ayukhts, he said.
Moily, however, said the proposed Lok Pal Bill should not include the Prime
Minister in its purview.
He said the commission planned to revisit some of the provisions of Article
311 of the Constitutions which give immunity to civil servants while dealing
with corruption charges.
Moily said the panel has, however, not taken a decision on demanding repeal
of the article, which has to be revised to fix accountability, dishonesty
and inefficiency.
“Time has come now to set in position ethics in governance and systemic
improvement as we cannot have any excuse or alibi on the question of
corruption and inefficiency,” he said.
Moily said the need for revisiting the article and evolving the codes arose
in view of the fact that there have been lacunae in the whole system which
takes a minimum 10 to 15 years to bring into effect any disciplinary action.
With a view to make the exercise foolproof, the commission has talked to a
number of legal experts, former Chief Justices of India and even some of the
victims of the system, who were subjected to harassment for being honest.
The commission planned to go into the issue of relations between civil
servants and political executive to ensure that one does not encroach into
another`s space and there was “no push down” or “no push up”.
The transfer system would also find a place in its report on the ethics in
governance, he said.
He said the things have not changed much on the accountability front inspite
of the recommendations of the Santhanam Committee and the Constitution
Review Commission.
The issue of accountability has gained added significance in the current era
of e-governance when governments run on autopilot.
Bureau Report