Shaken, not stirred

Nalco chairman A K Shrivastava and his wife were in for a shock on February 25 when they found CBI sleuths at their door. However, soon afterwards it was the cops' turn to be shocked for the search of Shrivastavas' lockers resulted in a catch that far exceeded the sleuths' expectations: seven gold bricks of one kg each, gold ornaments weighing 188 grams and Rs 9.5 lakh in cash! The first raid led investigators to a second locker, which led to another round of seizures, this time around Rs 29.5 lakh in cash
and 10.188 kg of gold which could not be explained.

Investigators close to the probe say that the couple were brokering a deal between the CMD and a Madhya Pradesh-based private group of companies. While politicians have gladly accepted the stick and are often lampooned in the media as a blubbering bunch of corrupt idiots, increasingly it is senior government officials who are now being caught with their pants down in cases of graft that seems to be multiplying by the day. Petty government officials are found in  possession of thousands of crores of unaccounted monies and an investment cycle which can be an industrialist's envy.

Consider the following:
 

• Suspended IAS couple from Madhya Pradesh Arvind and Tinu Joshi have been served notices by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax for violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). The pair's worth is estimated to be a staggering Rs 350 crore.

• Several top officials of the Sports Authority of India, Delhi government, NDMC, DDA and other government agencies are under the scanner of the CBI in connection with its probe related to irregularities in Commonwealth Games-related contracts.

• DoT officials are under the CBI scanner in connection with 2G Spectrum scam probe with allegations that some public servants may have invested in M/s Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Limited (formerly known as Swan Telecom Pvt Ltd) and M/s Loop Telecom Ltd through certain Mauritius-based companies.

• Of the 21 officials charge sheeted by the CBI on corruption charges, a whopping 11 belong to the Indian Revenue Service, five to the IAS and the rest to customs and central excise, departments long prone to corruption and graft.

During the course of pursuing the CBI chargesheet, The Sunday Indian's investigations revealed that of the 21 cases, major penalties have been advised in eight, closer report has been filed in two cases after investigation for seven to eight years and seven cases are still under trial.  (see box)

Why are government officials becoming increasingly corrupt? While no easy answers are available, the view that most bureaucrats can get away with it, is catching on. "The problem is that bureaucrats are highly unaccountable. Whatever little accountability they have is for the higher ups than for the people. This system was set up by the British, meant only for upwards and further upwards, till it reached the queen. The anti-corruption system is  so rotten that no one is punished," says Arvind Kejriwal, social activist and crusader for more transparency in government.

Adds Kejriwal, "There is an urgent need to install, implement, monitor and institutionalise systems, with due integration of technology to provide transparency, accountability and autonomy.'' Things easier said than done.

The news from the states is equally dismal and the list of accused is so long it would be difficult to know where to begin. Sample the following:
 

• Senior Kerala IPS officer Tomin J Thachankary is under suspension for the last one year for undertaking a foreign tour without government permission. He had earlier been suspended for allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to the known sources of income.

• As a part of its investigation into illegal mining activities of Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC- owned by Karnataka tourism minister Gali Janardhan Reddy), between 2005 and 2009 in the Bellary Reserve Forest area, the CBI has questioned Andhra Pradesh senior IAS officer  Y Srilakshmi, commissioner (health), who was secretary to AP Mines department.

• Andhra's anti-corruption bureau (ACB) has registered an FIR against B P Acharya, IAS and then chairman and managing director of AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), K Ratna Prabha, IAS, principal secretary — Information Technology and Communication department, M Gopi Krishna, IPS, special secretary — IT&C department, in an alleged conspiracy leading to depletion of government stake in the ventures IT Park and Mindspace project.

• Senior IAS officer Naveen Mittal regularised land belonging to a hapless woman Neeraja Rao, in favour of the relatives of Kadapa Mayor Ravindranath Reddy, the brother-in-law of late Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.

• In Orissa, Sanjeeb Kumar Ray, a retired IAS officer was sentenced to three years in prison for amassing illegal wealth.

• The anti-corruption wing of the Orissa government on May 12, 2010, had registered a criminal case against an IAS officer B P Sethi under the Prevention of Corruption Act

During the last two years, Oriss'a vigilance department has registered 82 cases against 37 IAS officers. Of these, charge sheets have been filed in 32 cases against 13. Similarly, 11 cases have been registered against seven IPS officers, out of which, chargesheets have been filed in 10 against 6 IPS officers. Another 30 cases have been registered against 23 IFS officers and in nine cases, chargesheets have been filed against 10 IFS officers.

In Tamil Nadu, Sumathi Ravichandran, regional passport officer was nabbed for allegedly accepting bribes from an applicant through a travel agent, while in August 2010, Rajasekar, an Indian Forest Service officer who was working as Regional Censor Board officer in Chennai, was arrested for allegedly accepting bribes.

The story of Punjab runs on similar lines. When senior IAS officer V K Janjua, then Director, Industries, was caught red handed in his office allegedly while accepting illegal gratification by the Punjab Vigilance bureau officials after the Akali Dal-BJP government came into power. There was shock but no disbelief.

The most glaring case – whose effects can be felt even today – was the arrest of Ravinderpal Singh Sidhu, the then Chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission, in 2002 when the then Chief Minister Amarinder Singh launched a major drive against corruption in high places. When the bank lockers associated with Sidhu were opened by the investigators, wades of currency notes started tumbling out. He had stacked more than Rs. five crore in the bank lockers. The trial continues.

In recent years, the only convicted senior bureaucrat was Bikramjit Singh who retired in the scale of the chief secretary. One of Badal’s “favoured boys”, he was appointed to the all important post of Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister when he took over as the Chief Minister for the third time in his political career in 1997. However, within days, Bikramjit Singh faced CBI raids and had to be shifted out. He was convicted last year and is now, predictably, on bail having challenged his conviction.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court last year issued directions for expediting cases against at least eight IAS officers in Punjab. The state government had informed the high court that vigilance inquiries and departmental proceedings had been pending against 18 IAS officers. Another eight faced criminal charges.

The officers named in the list included Sarvesh Kaushal, Mandeep Singh, B Sarkar, G S Pirzada, C S Srivastava, H I S Grewal, Khushi Ram, J S Maini, Dr Swarn Singh, R N Gupta, Dharam Vir, Harjit Singh, Kirpa Shanker Saroj, Shruti Singh and D S Grewal. Another set of IAS officers including K B S Sidhu, S C Agrawal and G S Grewal faced CBI proceedings in a case relating to the allotment of forestland for the development of a resort on the periphery of Chandigarh.

Others whose names cropped up were K Siva Prasad and R Venkatratnam. S S Virk, who headed the state police during the regime of Amarinder Singh, is also facing corruption charges slapped on him after the change of government.

In the aftermath of the 2G scam and the involvement of officials in awarding contracts for the Commonwealth Games, there is little surprise that India's bloated bureaucracy is being downgraded globally. For instance, it was ranked the least efficient by a business survey of 12 economies, Hong Kong-based Political & Economic Risk Consultancy said in a 12-page report of India’s bureaucracy.

While corruption is no doubt global, its ramifications in India have reached high local proportions. "Corruption in deals like Bofors are an accepted fact. But corruption in the Indian context is also  unique. Offering bribes for getting a service like income certificate from a village office is unheard of," says advocate D B Binu, state general secretary of Human Rights Defence Forum of Kerala.

It would be instructive to read the results of a first-of-its-kind online survey conducted during January-March 2010 to gauge perceptions about the Indian bureaucracy. Researcher Prem Lal Joshi, a professor at the University of Bahrain and Rajesh Kumar ,an assistant professor at the Institute of Management Technology, Dubai, came up with some interesting findings.

A total of 340 of a total of 2500 responded to the online survey. Over 54 per cent of the total surveyed felt that the system is a complete failure. Over 90 per cent felt that “political pressure” is the major constraint of the civil service system. About 46 per cent said they were not satisfied with the services provided to them by the system.

A shockingly high 92 per cent of the respondents held that the "over insured job security" has made IAS officers indolent and supremely arrogant. In spite of this, they are so entrenched that they advance smoothly to senior positions.

In addition, 89 per cent of the respondents held the view that the "reward system is basically skewed in favour of corrupt officers who get prime postings while the honest ones often get punishment transfers". About 85 per cent who took part in the survey agreed that the IAS system "encourages only generalists and not management specialists".

Almost 92 per cent also agreed that the lower bureaucracy in India is "insensitive and hostile in attitude while serving the poorest sections of society". 

 

Rogues' gallery: (left to right) Tomin Thachnkery, Bikramjit Singh, BP Acharya, M Gopi Krishna, Tinu and Arvind Joshi

While tackling corruption remains a favourite theme of TV talk shows and the public at large, just how difficult it is to nail high and mighty government officials, is exemplified in the examples of three officers from Uttar Pradesh– the state that houses the country's largest IAS cadre.

Lalit Verma, an IAS officer from the 1984 UP cadre, had come under the CBI scanner in 2007 when he was accused of having allegedly misrepresented his date of birth in order to stay longer in service.  He was later given a clean chit. Lalit, a topper from the 1984 batch, is currently secretary of the medical and health department of the UP government, and commissioner of food and drug department. "The agency unearthed disproportionate assets worth Rs 2.4 crore, including two flats in Noida, commercial property in Patparganj, a bungalow in Sainik Farms, a medical college in Greater Noida, several acres of land in Gurgaon's Bhondsi and Kaushambi in Ghaziabad, a house on Barakambha Road, Mansarovar Garden, and Knowledge Park in Greater Noida," reveals CBI's press information officer.

Trouble started for the 1984-batch IAS officer in August 2003 when officials at the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) noticed a change in his date of birth on his Civil Services application form.  DoPT officials alleged that beneath the column where his date of birth was entered as March 1, 1959, there had been an addition, “contested under correction”. February 13, 1962 had been added as his “corrected” date of birth. Varma's motive: to postpone his retirement by 35 months.

In his order, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sanjiv Jain said "There are sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused." At the moment CBI appears to be helpless with the UP Chief Secretary rejecting its plea. As a result, the ministry closed the case against Verma.

The case of former UP chief secretary Akhand Pratap Singh can be termed unique. In 2008, the CBI concluded its investigations into a disproportionate assets case against him. Its catch: a Rs 1,000 crore scam. Singh had around 85 immovable properties and 100 bank accounts in  Delhi, Noida, Greater Noida, Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Bahraich and Nainital. But Singh keeps the law at bay by filing appeals in various courts challenging his prosecution.

Likewise, the Mayawati government has denied permission to prosecute senior IAS officer Mahesh Gupta in an appointment racket. The CBI was asked to investigate an appointment racket in the state’s information department.

In September 2009 the CBI slapped a chargesheet against Mahesh Gupta – who is currently Commissioner Excise, UP; Prabhat Kumar Sinha and Ram Gopal Singh Verma. Gupta, who was alleged racket occupied the post of director, Information Department and has been found to be guilty as the main accused.  It is no surprise, therefore, that instead of stemming the tide of graft and bribery, government officials are giving it a strong filip.

‘We are trying to evolve a mechanism to quickly punish those caught red-handed’

V Narayansamy, the minister of state for personnel, who took charge last year, has a job cut out. With the shadow of corruption looming large over civil servants, his ministry, as the administrative head for all government appointments and dismissals, is at the helm of the salvage operations.  However, as he tells Priyanka Rai, several agencies of the government will have to get their act together if the battle against bribe has to be taken to a logical conclusion

There are a slew of cases against senior government officials. What are you doing about it?

The cases are pending in the courts, we cannot do anything. It is a judicial process. Also, the CBI is an autonomous body. Its superintendence comes only under the purview of the Chief Vigilance Commissioner. Our government does not interfere in their matters any way. If some case is under trial, it will take its own time. The law will take its own course.

What I am asking is that this is not something new. The trend follows a similar pattern. The investigation goes on for years even as the culprit is moving around freely leading his own life. It is likely that he is doing things for which he or she have been charge sheeted. What is the government doing about it?

We have appointed 71 exclusive fast track courts to look into the CBI cases. We have sanctioned additional courts of special judges in states as well. The prime minister has taken up the matter with chief ministers and chief secretaries of state governments. These courts will function as model courts and will try to dispose of cases within two years from the date of filing the charge sheet.

When did you sanction these courts and how much time it will take for them to initiate proceedings?

We have sanctioned it last year and the work should have been over by now. I can not give you the status today since it is a holiday. I can let you know the details later.

When will these courts become functional?

See, we taking steps from the administrative side, not from the judicial side. We have sanctioned the proforma and now implementation is left with the states and the judiciary. But I can tell you that it will be our endeavour to make these CBI courts functional by the end of this year.

Would it be appropriate to say that a serious and thorough investigation into the affairs of senior officials is not possible because the anti-corruption system is weak and useless?

We have the Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayukta at the state-level to address public grievances and steps are being considered to strengthen these agencies. As for those who have been caught red handed, we are trying to create mechanisms to punish them without going into the regular process of investigation. These are the reforms we are making.

Is there any way this rampant corruption in the bureaucracy can be stemmed?

We have come up with a proposal for bringing in transparency in any tender related to minerals, iron ore etc thereby reducing the opportunities of abuse of power. Also, the group of ministers (GoM) led by Pranab Mukherjee was set up about two months ago to look into the matters related to implementation of Lokayukta and transparency issues. Pranab Mukherjee, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal, Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar and me are in the committee. The committee has already met thrice in the last two months.