fighting corruption and social media
TRANSCRIPT
Fighting Corruption
& Social MediaMahesh Kumar
Satta Panchayat Iyyakam & ChennaiNEXT
Purpose of Government
• Law and Order • ““The proper function of a government is to make it easy
for people to do good and difficult for them to do evil”
DETERENCELaw and Punishment
Existing Laws• IPC 1860 : Unlawfully buying or bidding of property – Two years
imprisonment or fine or both + property confiscation • Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988
• Prior Sanction to Prosecute ( Now being amended)• Bribe : Imprisonment : 6 month to 5 years
• Benami Transactions Act: Imprisonment upto 3 years and/or fine • Prevention of Money Laundering Act : Property via crime and
project it as untainted property ( 3 – 7 years and/or 5 Lakh)
Agencies Involved• Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)• Central Vigilance Commission (CVC)• State Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)• CBI and state ACBs – Investigate corruption cases under IPC and PCA• CVC – Supervise Corruption in Government departments.
• CBI under CVC. CVC can refer case to Central Vigilance Officer (CVO) in each department or to the CBI
• CVC – Recommends action , final say rests with department
• Cases under PCA – Tried by Special Judges• State Vigilance Departments
Effectiveness of current System• Last 15 years :
• Corruption cases – 0.06% of Total Crime Cases • 6 times more cases of robbery registered!• 5 States have no conviction [West Bengal, Goa, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura
and Meghalaya]• Trial completed only in half cases • 3 States has record of 100% Acquittal [Goa, Manipur and Tripura]• 54,139 corruption cases 2001-2015 ( Total : 9.33 Crore offence)• 19% of Registered cases resulted in conviction ( or 35.33% of Completed case)
• TN - 11.11% (42.93%) respectively
Effectiveness of current System
Effectiveness of current System
CBI has around 2000 investigative officers and FBI of USA has 60,000 investigative officers
The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act
• Passed in 2013 • An ombudsman for corruption cases• Lokpal still not appointed • Lokayukta to be formed in all states by Jan 2015• 11 states still don’t have Lokayukta ( Tamil Nadu is one of
them)• States Can decide the scope and powers of Lokayukta
Ombudsman – What should be our goal
• 3 Tier : Union , State and Centre
• Lokpal to convict 50 cases at Union level per year
• Lokayukta – 20 Cases at State level
• District Ambudsman to take care of Smaller or Petty Corruption
Government Employees
Central Govt : 34 Lakh State Govt : 72.18 Lakh Quasi Govt : 58.15 Lakh Local Bodies : 20.53 Lakh
Total : 185 Lakh
Information & Monitoring
Information- Right to Information – Scams that RTI helped to bust
- The Adarsh Scam :- house to war widows and heroes of the 1999 Kargil War- politicians, bureaucrats and military officials had flouted rules to
acquire flats below market rates- resignation of Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan- RTI Activist : Simpreet Singh and Yogacharya Anandj
Information- Right to Information – Scams that RTI helped to bust
- Commonwealth Games - Diversion of Dalit Funds- 2G Scam:
- documents from PM office : included a controversial finance ministry note that said 2G spectrum could have been auctioned at better prices had the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram insisted
- RTI application filed by Subhash Chandra Agrawal - Raja had a "15-minute-long" meeting with then Solicitor- General Goolam E. Vahanvati in December 2007
following which a “brief note was prepared and handed over to the Minister," but no minutes were recorded.
- esponding to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's letter urging "fairness and transparency” in the allocation of spectrum, Raja responded by saying that his meetings with the "External Affairs Minister (Pranab Mukherjee) and the Solicitor-General of India have further enlightened me to take a pre-emptive and pro-active decision."
Proactive Information
• Tenders Details online by Chennai Corporation• Birth and Death Certificate Online • Land Records Online Efforts
Monitoring
• The Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG) • Public sector auditing and accounting
• No Systematic Audit for Major Expenses • NREGA • PDS
Monitoring
• US 1933 , 4% GNP allotted for unemployment• Divison of Progress Investigation
• 17,253 Cases • 8811 cases substantiated
• 2251 referred to criminal prosecution• Of the remaining 6596: 4496 persons were dismissed, demoted,
suspended, reprimanded or debarred
CITIZEN CHARTER+ Awareness of Procedures
Simplification of Rules and Procedure
Derugulation
Simplification and Deregulation
• Till Mid 70’s – Cyclist were required to have license • Land Conversion
Decentralisation
JudiciaryCriminal Cases Conviction – 6% including
confession, Normally 40% in Europe
Judge Ratio Per 10 Lakh : 10.5 in India , US- 107 3.4 Crore Cases Pending
Political FundingMPs – 34% Criminal Cases , 21% - Serious
Criminal CasesLegislators with Criminal Cases : 700/4072
Social Media
Social Media
• Story of Kamaraj Campaign • Internet Penteration
• At 2015 End – 35 Crore • At 2020 - 73 Cr Estimated
• Facebook : 14.2 Crore active users • WhatsApp – Co-ordination
Social Media
• Facebook followers • SPI : 72 thousand + • Arapoor : 43 thousand +
• Rumours – Double Edged Sword
Citizen Engagement
Gallup Civic Engagement Index - 79/140CAF World Giving Index - 106/145
Hope CSIS Youth Citizen Participation Rank of India
is : 3/30