Fighting corruption and Social media

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