For every success in fighting corruption, there’s a fresh backslide

Newsweek- Pulling Hands Out of the Till
The best countries keep public and private sector graft in check.
For every success in fighting corruption, there’s a fresh backslide. Although the U.S. and Europe have made spectacular gains in cracking down on corporate bribery, the financial crisis and its $20 trillion in bailouts and stimulus spending created a rash of opportunities to shift public resources to private pockets. It didn’t help that the programs concentrated on some of the most fraud-ridden sectors, such as banking, real estate, energy, and infrastructure. China alone has arrested more than 3,000 officials for graft related to its $586 billion stimulus.

Go to the Head of the Class What’s clear, however, is that some countries do much better than others in rooting out corruption. Their lessons, according to corruption experts at Transparency International, the Basel Institute on Governance, and the Brookings Institution:

Get government out of the shadows. Corruption thrives not just on plainly illegal bribes, but even more on legal practices such as political donations, lobbying, and the revolving doors that reward lawmakers and regulators with juicy jobs in industry. Sweden, a star performer in the corruption rankings, has cleaned up government by opening virtually all government records to the public. It’s no coincidence that economists consider Sweden the world’s textbook example for how to resolve a banking crisis resolutely and at minimal cost to taxpayers.

Peer pressure. For years, the U.S. was the only country seriously pursuing corporate bribery. After relentlessly exposing many of the world’s biggest companies, the U.S. shamed others into stiffening their laws and stepping up prosecution. Britain, where Prime Minister Tony Blair once snuffed out an inquiry into British Aerospace payments in Saudi Arabia, just passed the world’s toughest anti-bribery law. Germany, until recently, considered bribes standard business practice and even made them tax-deductible. Reluctant German prosecutors didn’t start investigations of their own until after German companies kept showing up in U.S. courts.

Litigate, litigate, litigate. Massive fines have made bribery a high-risk game. Germany’s Siemens has paid $1.6 billion and still faces prosecution in several other countries. That both the U.S. and U.K. can litigate any bribe anywhere as long as the company involved does business in America or Britain could one day make even Chinese, Indian, and Russian companies come clean (they now count among the world’s most corrupt, according to Transparency International’s Bribe Payer Index). Already, über-corrupt Russia has begun to cooperate with OECD anti-corruption fighters as the country tries to raise its standing in Western trade and economic bodies.
Courtesy: Newsweek: The most corrupt countries

India’s leaders remain mired in debate and stifled by bureaucracy

Interactive Graphic: The World's Best Countries

Why Cold and Depressive Countries Are the Best

Matchup: Which National Models Fare Better?

Secrets of the World's Best School Systems

Photo Gallery: The World's Best, by Category

Border Roadways Organisation turns 50 countering U- turns

BRO turns 50: Old traditions, new problems
Ajai Shukla / New Delhi May 07, 2010, 0:04 IST Business Standard
Exactly 50 years ago, with war clouds gathering on the Sino-Indian border, Jawaharlal Nehru created the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), an inter-ministerial task force that has become an Indian exemplar of grit and fortitude. Thanks to over 48,000 kilometres of BRO roads, soldiers now drive to far-flung border picquets that earlier involved days of marching. But, even on the BRO’s Golden Jubilee, an ambitious expansion of India’s border road network remains stymied by archaic state laws and a crippling lack of urgency.

The challenge before the BRO — triggered by China’s dramatic expansion of road and rail links in Tibet — is the Strategic Accelerated Road Development Programme (SARDP) planned by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. Under this, the BRO will build double-lane roads from each state capital in the northeast to each of that state’s district headquarters. That involves building 38 roads, approximately 2,812 km long, within the next five years. In addition, the government has recently handed the BRO responsibility for the Arunachal Package, which involves building another 812 km of roads in the state that China calls “Southern Tibet”.

Holding back the BRO are two major obstacles. First, the tribal structure of Arunachal Pradesh makes it difficult for the state government to acquire land for these roads. While the state government constitutionally owns non-private land, Itanagar goes by tribal tradition in which all land belongs to the local tribe. The acquisition of any land in Arunachal Pradesh involves extended negotiations with multiple tribal leaders who are increasingly aware of the value of their concurrence.

Admitting that land acquisition is a problem, the Director General of the BRO, Lt Gen M C Badhani, says, “Procedural delays (in land acquisition) have to be accepted. The locals bring forward their own concerns and aspirations and we try to take those on board. It is important to have local support.”

The other obstacle before the BRO is the requirement to provide each labourer with an Inner Line Permit (ILP) before entering Arunachal Pradesh, something that the state government implements strongly. Thousands of casual labourers from states across the country, especially Jharkhand and Bihar, are contracted for BRO projects in Arunachal; their employment is often held up while ILPs are issued.

“We will continue to enforce ILPs strictly in Arunachal,” promises a top bureaucrat in the Arunachal Pradesh state government. “Arunachal’s identity will be swamped by outsiders if we don’t keep a tight control on who enters the state. All kinds of trouble-makers can come into Arunachal pretending to be labourers; we will vet every single labourer and make the contractor responsible.”
Read more
BRO turns 50: Old traditions, new problems
Related reading
Now on, BRO to Focus on Building Strategic Assets: Antony

IESM: Fast for Justice Rally- forty fifth day

Date: Friday, 30 January, 2009, 10:41 PM

Dear Colleagues,
The Jantar Mantar battlefront is under the able command of our colleagues from Gujarat today. We thank them for joining the effort and for strengthening the cause.

New Members
We heartily welcome the following new members and thank them for their generous contribution to the cause:
1. Rear Adm SC Anand, NOIDA
2. Rear Adm Sanjeev Kapoor, New Delhi
3. Lt Gen Harwant Singh, Chandigarh
4. Brig AN Suryanarayanan, Bangalore

08 Feb 2009 Rally
The Core Gp met Jan 30 and firmed up the details of the Rally. We assemble at Jantar Mantar at 1100 hours. Thereafter carrying suitable banners, we march in a procession. The route that has been proposed to the police is Jantar Mantar – Ashok Road – Kasturba Gandhi Marg – Tolstoy Marg – Jantar Mantar. Police response is awaited. At Jantar Mantar, there will be a few short speeches by nominated PBOR, officers and some family members. The Chairman will then conclude and announce the next plan of action. Meanwhile medals would have been surrendered/ collected and a select party would take these to the Rashtrapati Bhawan along with a letter/ memorandum to the Supreme Commander.

Earnest Appeal
1. State/District/ City heads wherever appointed should kindly bring maximum numbers to the Rally.
2. Launch a sustained drive to enrol maximum new members.
3. All those who weild influenece over the media should secure maximum attendance of print and visual media.

A Clarification
Some well meaning ESM have been writing to the government seeking pension as per the SAI 1/S 2008 and 2/S/2008. It is clarified that these are individual views and do not reflect the collective thinking of the IESM. Our stand is unambiguous and our well-stated demand is for ‘one rank one pension’ and nothing less.

Best regards,
Lt Gen (Emeritus) Raj Kadyan, PVSM, AVSM, VSM
Chairman IESM

IESM: Our "status quo" concious Civil Servants

The other day when Lt Gen Raj Kadyan and his IESM team met some bureaucrats in the South Block, they were quizzed about the historical background of OROP. If I remember correctly, the question posed was,

"Has the military ever had OROP in the past? If so, until when; and if not, why has it become necessary now?"

The question is relevant as well as pertinent, and therefore, it must be answered. It challenges the very foundation of our quest for justice. Consequently, I took out my papers and discovered that it is fairly well answered in the book which I wrote in 1988. Since the work was based on 'primary evidence' I take it that it shall be possible to substantiate it with cogent proof. I have, therefore, chosen to reproduce verbatim from page 95-96 of "Wages Down the Ages"

"In the case of officers, a 'standard service' concept was in vogue. Thus, as long as an officer had rendered the length of service given in the table below, he was entitled to a fixed amount of pension irrespective of his pay at the time of retirement. And if he served longer than that, no additional benefit was given to him.

Capt and below...20 years

Major..............22 years

Lt col..............24 years

Col.................26 years

Brig................28 years

Gen officers......30 years

This was done to induce an officer who was not promoted to leave service without having to stick on for earning a higher pension. In the case of PBOR the pension was based on the 'top of the scale' for each rank and pay group, which was, once again a figure. (Their weightage was a constant figure of five years, irrespective of rank, at that point of time) The point to note is that the pensions were not a percentage of the pay, though there was a loose linkage between the two"

As per my records, the above format existed from times immemorial and was in vogue right up to the time when the Third Pay commission was implemented. They then drew up a system of weightages ( Capt and below 09;Maj 08; Lt Col & Col 07; Brig and Lt Col-TS 05 and Gen officers 03) which are used even today. I can also say with some authority that all through the period when the rank based pensions were granted (We can now call it OROP) there was no quibbling over the issue of pensions. I dare the government to quote one single instance when any soldier went to the court on the pension issue during the above period, and indeed, demonstrations hunger strikes of the present kind were inconceivable. We have several second generation soldiers in our fold (I am one, myself) Does any one remember his father complaining about 'anomalies' in his pension before 1973?

The entire problem started when we began to enforce civilian formulae for regulating military pensions. The demise of OROP is the root cause of all evil. And the solution now lies in determining those simple rank based figures and applying the service condition in a rational manner. In my view, the salaries from 1.1.2006 to 1.9.2008 have been altering due to a number of factors. They are a sort of 'transients' However, by now the steady state has been achieved, and so all we need to do is to study the pattern of salaries admissible to soldiers at various ranks and arrive at appropriate figures. In my view, all that we need to do is to restore "staus quo ante" Go back on the time line, for answers and solutions.

I would be very glad to have comments from the members of our fraternity.
With best wishes for the forth coming Republic Day,
Maj Gen Surjit Singh
PS
Somewhere I read that, a bureaucrat is defined as a person who holds on to 'status quo' because it is safe to let the existing state of affairs to perpetuate. If, however, he loses 'quo', he clings on to 'status' for all he is worth!

Centre to set up anomaly panel

Photo credit:ShyamalSCPC- Red Tape Cycle- Anomalies growing like branches in a tree!
New Delhi: The government has decided to set up an Anomaly Committee to settle disputes arising out of implementation of the sixth Pay Commission recommendations. It will receive representations on anomalies up to six months from the date of its constitution and will dispose of them within a year.
Centre to set up anomaly panel
GOI Letter dated 12 Jan 2009: SCPC Anomaly Committee

Comment: The Armed Forces Salaries and Pension of Ex- Servicemen are riddled with bullets inflicting devastating injuries! An earlier anomaly committee has caused further injuries rather than healing the hurt. What can we expect from another anomaly committee?

Corruption and the Nation

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely
It is not easy to define corruption. But in a narrow sense, corruption is mostly concerned with ‘bribery’ and it takes several forms. Corruption is a global phenomenon and it is omnipresent. Corruption has progressively increased and is now rampant in our society.

National scenario
Corruption in India is a consequence of the nexus between Bureaucracy, politics and criminals. India is now no longer considered a soft state. It has now become a consideration state where everything can be had for a consideration. Today, the number of ministers with an honest image can be counted on fingers. At one time, bribe was paid for getting wrong things done but now bribe is paid for getting right things done at right time.

Effects of corruption
Indian administration is tainted with scandals. India is among 55 of the 106 countries where corruption is rampant, according to the Corruption Perception Index 2007 Report released by Transparency International India. Corruption in India leads to promotion not prison. It is very difficult to catch ‘big sharks’. Corruption in India has wings not wheels. As nation grows, the corrupt also grow to invent new methods of cheating the government and public.
Corruption in India

Comments: The Bureaucrats are undermining the Honour, Rank and Status of the Military. The SCPC anomalies committee has conveniently subverted the Cabinet Decision on Pay and Allowances to the Armed Forces. Anomalies of 5th Pay Panel is yet to be resolved because the decision- making process has been confused out of shape by the self- centered Bureaucrats sitting at the helm of affairs.