Emphasizing on the urgent need of a multi-prong approach to curb corruption, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said it is hurting India’s economic growth and discouraging investors from coming to this country.
“The pervasive corruption in our country tarnishes our image. It also discourages investors, who expect fair treatment and transparent dealings when dealing with public authorities. As the country grows and integrates with the world economy, corruption continues to be an impediment to harnessing the best of technology and investable resources,” the PM said at the seventeenth biennial conference of CBI and State Anti-Corruption Bureaus.
Singh also asked the CBI and other officers to change the feeling in the country that “while petty cases get tackled quickly, the big fish often escape punishment”.“This has to change. Rapid, fair and accurate investigation of allegations of corruption in high places should remain your utmost priority. The nation expects you to act firmly, swiftly and without fear or favour,” he said.
As the PM had identified the return to high growth rate as the biggest task for the second UPA government, the PM’s message today also shows concern over this obstacle on the revival path. Maintaining that corruption distorts the rule of law and weakens institutions of governance, PM said it is hurting the economic growth “in a variety of ways”.
“Important projects, which have huge externalities for growth, do not get implemented in time, and when they do get finished, they are often of a poor quality. Inflated project costs consume scarce national resources which could have been better used in other important areas in the service of our people , ” he said.
While his government has launched a host of programmes aiming the poor section of the society, the PM today especially mentioned how the poor are hurt because of corruption. “We have some of the most ambitious and wide ranging programmes to help the poor and the marginalized sections of our society. But, there is a constant refrain in public discourse that much of what the government provides never reaches the intended beneficiaries".
Just two weeks ago in the meeting of the chief ministers on internal security the PM as well as Home Minister P Chidambaram had hauled up the chief ministers of Nagaland and Manipur for rampant corruption in their states. An annoyed Chidambaram later told media that it is disturbing to see even government officials are forced to give a part of their salaries to the local insurgents regularly.
While emphasizing that this “malaise” should be treated immediately and effectively, Singh also made it clear that there is “no single remedy”. “The battle has to be fought at many levels. The design of development programmes should provide for more transparency and accountability. Systems and procedures which are opaque, complicated, centralized and discretionary are a fertile breeding ground for the evil of corruption. They should be made more transparent, simpler, decentralized and less discretionary” .
The PM also hinted that some recommendations of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission will be adopted soon to curb corruption. “It has given a wide range of recommendations. I am told that these have been examined in great detail and it should be soon possible to take a decision on many of these recommendations of the Administrative Reforms Commission.
