Governance

 World Bank defined governance as the method through which power is exercised to
manage a country’s political, economic and social resources for development
 Governance is the process and institutions through which decisions are made and authority
in a country is exercised. Governance can be used in several contexts such as corporate
governance, international governance, national governance and local governance
 OR the capacity of governments to manage resources efficiently, and to formulate,
implement, and enforce sound policies and regulations

Stakeholders of Governance
Stakeholders of governance at national level can be categorised into three broad categories – State,
Market and Civil Society
 The State includes the different organs of the government (Legislature, Judiciary and
Executive). It also consists of different segments of actors (elected representatives, political
executive, bureaucracy/civil servants at different levels etc.)
 The Market includes the private sector – organised as well as unorganised – that includes
business firms ranging from large corporate houses to small scale industries
 The Civil Society is the most diverse. It includes Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs),
Voluntary Organizations (VOs), media organisations/ associations, trade unions, religious
groups, pressure groups.

Good Governance
 Governance’ by itself is a neutral term while `Good Governance’ implies positive attributes
and values associated with the quality of governance
 United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) recognizes eight core characteristics of
good governance
 Participatory, Consensus oriented, Transparent, Accountable, Responsive, Effective and
Efficient, Equitable and Inclusive, Follows the Rule of Law

Dimensions of Good Governance in India

Department of Administrative reforms and Public grievances (DARPG) in its report “State of
Governance has broken down governance into five dimensions viz. political, legal& judicial,
administrative, economic and social &environmental dimensions
1. Political dimensions:
 looks at the quality of political contestants and conduct of individuals representing
the people
 use and abuse of political authority,
 decentralization of powers and
 citizen’s faith in the political system

Political issues regarding governance

 Criminalization of Politics
 Misuse of political power
 Decentralization more in letter less in spirit

2. Legal & Judicial Dimension of Governance:

  ability to effectively maintain law and order,
 safeguard human rights and enable access to & delivery of justice
 whether state’s power is within boundaries

Legal and Judicial issues

 Delayed justice, issue of under trials
 Lack of accountability in security and law agencies
 Threat to life and personal security

3. Administrative Dimension of Governance:

 determines the ability of government to deliver basic services,
 performance of the State on vigilance and anti‐corruption matters
 E-governance, transparency and accountability in administration

Administrative issues
 Bureaucratic discretion, red tapism
 Poor productivity, professionalism, Lack of sensitivity, transparency and accountability in the
working of State machinery
 Corruption

4. Economic Dimension of Governance:

 ability of the state to ensure macro-economic stability
 create conducive climate for economic activity,
 state’s ability to provide support to the primary sector

Economic issues
 Persisting fiscal imbalances and deficits
 Regional disparities
 Declining Agriculture growth rate

5. Social and Environmental Dimension of Governance:

 ability of the state to take care of the vulnerable sections of the society,
 assess governance by examining the role and quality of the civil society and media,
 Environmental management, initiatives and EIA

Social and Environmental issues

 Marginalisation and exclusion of people on account of social, religious, caste and gender
affiliation
 Denial of basic services
 Existence of a significant number of poor (Transgenders) with little opportunity for
participation in governance
 Excess control over NGOs and media
 Deterioration of physical environment, particularly in urban areas

Good Governance Initiatives in India

Good governance initiatives can be summarized as following

 Political: Decentralization and People’s Participation - 73rd and 74th Constitutional

amendment Act
 Legal: Tele law initiative, NALSA
 Social: Development programs for weaker sections and backward areas
 Economic: Financial management and budget sanctity through FRBM act and other
measures
 Administrative:
 Simplification of procedures and processes and reducing red tapism
 Citizen Charters
 Sevottam model
 Redress of Citizen’s Grievances
 E-Governance and use of ICT tools
 Public service morale & anti‐corruption measures
 Transparency and Accountability measures – RTI and Social audits

Barriers to good governance

 Multiplicity of laws governing same or similar set of issues

 Requirement of a large number of approvals/permissions
 Separate clearances/approvals required from different authorities on same or similar issues
 Too many points of contact between investor and authorities.
 Lack of transparency in the administration of clearances and approvals
 Attitudinal Problems of the Civil Servants wrt to their inflexible, self-perpetuating and
inward-looking approaches
 Lack of Values – of integrity, dedication, spirt of public service in public life
 Discretion and monopoly of government officials - for example corruption in allocation of
natural resources and giving licenses; dominance of public sector in banking and other
services
 No transparency and accountability
 Low education and awareness among masses - people having no information about their
rights and powers; poor understanding of government procedures and law
 Corruption becoming a norm - it has become a part of culture and is no longer regarded as
wrong.
 Low level officials themselves may have trouble earning an honest living. In poor societies,
they are often underpaid, and must provide a stream of payments to patrons at higher
levels. In such settings, bribery, extortion and theft become matters of survival
 Less probability of getting caught and long delay in judicial process
 Demand for action against corruption is weak; civil society not proactive
 No incentive for integrity and probity in public life - honest bureaucrats like Ashok khemka
are punished instead of getting rewarded.
 Absence of ethical training.
 Lack of emotional intelligence in people to understand the socio-economic consequence on
the national and especially poor

Minimum Government, Maximum Governance

  It means a citizen friendly and accountable administration by reducing human interface
and red tapism, and increasing efficiency and quality of service delivery by the government
 Streamline Rules and Procedures and Adoption of ICT and E-governance for Transparency
 Leveraging technology - such as E-procurements, E-payments, websites for dissemination of
information and creating awareness, CCTV in places of public dealing, GPS enabled devices /
RFIDs, computer assisted audit techniques for detecting fraud
 Simplification and standardization of rules, procedures by undertaking a complete review
and repeal of obsolete/archaic laws/rules, identification and shortening of various forms and
regulations
 Discretionary power of public servants be eliminated
 Digital India has helped Ministry of Panchayati Raj move to 100% e-office
 Ease of Doing Business’ also focuses on ease of governance
 rationalization of the existing rules and introduction of information technology
 mygov@nic.in and india.gITov.info are two citizen centric platforms to empower people to
connect with the Government
 PMO website also seeks expert advice from the people on various topics that concern India

Sevottam Model
 The Sevottam model has been developed with the overarching objective of improving the
quality of public service delivery in the country.
 It is a combination of two words Seva (service), Uttam (excellence).
 It provides a framework for organizations to assess and improve the quality of service
delivery to citizens
 The model was suggested by 2nd ARC in its 12th report Citizen centric administration
 It guides them through systematic initiatives for sustainable improvements in service
delivery
 Using this analysis, practical solutions are gradually and systematically incorporated into
the organization’s day-to-day routine

1. The model has three modules: Citizen Charter, Public Grievance Redress mechanism,
Service Delivery Capability
2. The model prescribes seven steps: Define services, Set standards, Develop capability,
Perform, monitor performance, Evaluate impact, Continuous improvement
3. Organizations adopting Sevottam model for service delivery need to comply with seven
steps and ensure formulation of three modules
4. Implementation of Sevottam framework in the government departments was started in
2009.

CITIZENS CHARTERS
A Citizen Charter is a document that outlines the commitment of a public body towards standard,
quality and timeframe of service delivery along with grievance redress mechanism
It is a public statement that that defines the entitlements of citizens to a specific service, the
standards of the service, the conditions to be met by users, and the remedies available to the latter in
case of non-compliance of standards
Principles of the Citizen’s Charter

 Quality: Set standards of service

  Transparency: Be open and provide full information
 Consult and involve
 Standards: Specifying what to expect and how to act if standards are not met
 Use resources effectively
 Innovate and improve
 Work with other providers
 Value: For the taxpayers’ money;
 Accountability: Individuals and Organisations

Components of CC
DARPG prescribes that a good Citizen’s Charter should have the following components
Vision and Mission Statement of the Organisation
Details of Business transacted by the Organisation
Details of ‘Citizens’ or ‘Clients
Statement of services including standards, quality, time frame etc. provided to each Citizen/
Client group separately and how/ where to get the services
Details of Grievance Redress Mechanism and how to access it
Expectations from the ‘Citizens’ or ‘Clients’
Additional commitments such as compensation in the event of failure of service delivery

The Benefits of CC:

Enhance accountability by providing citizens with a clear understanding of service delivery standards
Increase organizational effectiveness and performance by making a public commitment to adhere to
measurapble service delivery standards
It can be an effective tool to engage the civil society and to curb corruption
It enhances people participation in governance process and the credibility of the government
Increase government revenues by ensuring that the money citizens pay for services goes into the
government’s coffers

Issues with Citizen Charters in India

 Poor design and content- Most organizations do not have adequate capability to draft
meaningful and succinct Citizens’ Charter. Critical information that end -users need to hold
agencies accountable are simply missing from a large number of charters because end users
or NGOs are not consulted
 Lack of public awareness: Effective efforts of communicating and educating the public
about the standards of delivery have not been undertaken.
 Charters haven not been prepared in vernaculars
 Charters are rarely updated and some documents date back from the inception of the
Citizens’ Charter programme nearly a decade ago.
 Resistance to change- The new practices demand significant changes in the behaviour and
attitude of the agency and its staff towards citizens
 Inadequate groundwork: Non-familiarity of the service providers with the philosophy, goals
and main features of charters
 Absence of legal backing to charters. The Citizen’s Charter is not legally enforceable and,
therefore, is non-justiciable
 It has still not been adopted by all Ministries/Departments, primely because of absence of
penal provisions in case of non-implementation of the spirit of the Charter
 Measurable standards of delivery are rarely spelt out in the Charters, so it becomes difficult
to assess whether the desired level of service has been achieved or not.
 Details of public grievance officer are not provided in many charters
2nd ARC Recommendations:

Internal restructuring should precede Charter formulation: complete analysis of the existing
systems and processes within the organization and new initiatives adopted.
One size does not fit all, therefore formulation of Citizens’ Charters should be a decentralized activity
Wide consultation process- It should be formulated after extensive consultations within the
organization followed by a meaningful dialogue with civil society
Redressal mechanism in case of default- It should clearly lay down the relief which the organization is
bound to provide if it has defaulted on the promised standards of delivery
Periodic evaluation of Citizens’ Charters preferably through an external agency
Benchmark using end-user feedback
Hold officers accountable for results- The monitoring mechanism should fix specific responsibility in
all cases where there is a default in adhering to the Citizens’ Charter

Social Audit
 Social audit is a process which allows end users to scrutinize the impact of development
programs by sharing with them the details of resources sanctioned and used
 Therefore, Social audit serves as an instrument for the measurement of social
accountability of an organization and ultimately helps in improving an organization's social
and ethical performance
 While a conventional financial audit focuses on financial records and their scrutiny by an
external auditor following financial accountancy principles. Social audit covers a wide
horizon of impacts as its reports revolve around ethics, labour, environment, human
rights, community, society

Need and Importance of Social Audit

 The investment of large amount of funds and resources by the Government since
independence have not been able to justify the impact
 The major focus by the Government hitherto has been in the supply side of the Programme
while Social audit focuses on the demand side that is the end users
 Social Audit has become crucial due to greater devolution of central fund to PRIs, ULB on
the recommendation of Finance Commissions and 73rd and 74th amendment and CAG’s
limited jurisdiction over such entities
 Strengthening the democratic process as People directly observe the implementation of
Government programmes in their region making the process participatory. This, in the long
run, empowers the people and makes the process of development more inclusive
 Increases Social and financial accountability as It provides direct evidence for inputs,
processes, financial and physical reporting, compliance, physical verification, assurance
against misuse, fraud and misappropriation, and utilisation of resources and assets
 Social Auditing helps the legislature and executive in identifying the problem areas and
Alerts policymakers to stakeholder trends, grassroots problems of policy
implementation and therefore helps departments shape their priorities in tune with
community expectations
 In flagship schemes such as MGNREGA, the Union Government is promoting social audit
to check corruption
Limitations of Social Audit
 The scope of social audits is intensive but highly localised thus the findings of social audit
cannot be generalised over the entire population
 The monitoring through social audits is informal and unprocessed with limited follow-up
action
 Several problems require a package of programme to be implemented simultaneously. For
example, rural health requires convergence between water supply, education, sanitation,
nutrition etc. Social audit becomes cumbersome in such cases where different ministry
programmes are to be audited simultaneously
 Thus, Social audits are often sporadic and ad hoc and covers only certain selected aspects
out of a wide range of audit concerns
 Further unavailability of data, statistics, basic audit knowledge at gram sabha level limit
their effectiveness
 Lack of focused media attention and scrutiny to social audits. Media and public are more
concerned about financial audits
 While NREGA explicitly mentions social audits, other programmes like PDS, NRHM etc. have
varying arrangements for grass‐root level monitoring, limiting their utility
 Faces great resistance to establish due to the lack of administrative and political will in
institutionalising social audits since they expose poor service delivery of the government

Way Forward
 Uniformity of social audit at the village level for all social sector programmes to better
institutionalise community participation
 For empowerment of the Demand System, investment in education and awareness of
Public/ Gram Sabha members about basic auditing is required
 Institutional capacity needs to be increased at PRI, Block, and DRDA level, in terms of
information Storage and distribution for ready usage
 organising PRI Accounting Audit and Social Audits and putting them on the INTERNET
 Promoting proactive disclosure of information to facilitate social audits
 Support may be provided to NGOs to play the catalytic role including conducting Social
Audit
 Media needs to be proactive in demanding social audits and then questioning their results
and doing follow up
 Recognise and Reward the members who have contributed to the process of
strengthening audit System and improved service delivery
 Learning from the progress made by the civil society groups and Gram Sabhas in Andhra
Pradesh and Rajasthan in setting up separate directorates for social audit
Second ARC recommendations
 Social audit compliments the CAG’s audits and therefore it should be mainstreamed into
our processes for audit of all social sector programmes
 All schemes should provide Operational guidelines on how to conduct a social audit for
that particular scheme
 Constitute a Social Audit panel for examining areas of public interface with a view to
recommending essential changes in procedures

E-Governance
  According to UNESCO, “e-Governance may be understood as the performance of
governance via the electronic medium in order to bring about SMART Governance: S –
Simple, M-Moral, Accountable, R- Responsive, T - Transparent

Benefits of E-Governance
 It provides Fast, Convenient and Cost-Effective Service Delivery
 Increases Transparency, Accountability and Reduces Corruption
 It helps to reduce the discretionary powers of government officials due to less human
interface
 Dissemination of Information through ICT and increased use of web-based services
improves the awareness levels of citizens about their rights and powers.
 Therefore, it empowers the citizens through information and enhances their participation
 Expanded Reach of Governance: Expansion of telephone network, mobile, internet
connectivity and satellite, strengthening of other communications infrastructure facilitates
service delivery too remote corners
 Increases faith and confidence of public in the government and its machinery due to easy
and corruption free access of services
 Improve interface with Business and Industry: Industrial development in India has been
hampered in the past with complex procedures and bureaucratic delays. E-governance aims
to expedite the various processes important for ease of doing business

Models of e-governance
four models of e-governance are: - Government to citizen (G2C), Government to government
(G2G), Government to business (G2B) and Government to employees (G2E)

1. Government to Citizen (G2C): government services which are shared by the citizen such
as Payment of online bills, Online registration of applications, Online copies of land-record,
Online filling of complaints,
2. Government to Businessmen (G2B): Through this model, bond between private sector
and government strengthens. Initiatives like collection of taxes, rejection of approval of
clearances, certifications, patents, etc., sharing information and data etc
3. Government to Employees (G2E): increases the transparency between government and
its employees and thus strengthens their relationship. Initiatives like data submission
(attendance record, employee record etc.) from various government offices, Employee can
file complaints and dissatisfaction, Check paying record and pension and PPF accounts
4. Government to Government (G2G): refers to the services which are shared between the
government, government agencies, departments, organisations

E-Governance Initiatives in India

‘Digital India’ programme

 transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge centric economy
 Digital India is an umbrella programme that covers multiple Government Ministries and
Departments and is being coordinated by MeitY
 It places equal stress on digital infrastructure, governance and service delivery
and digital empowerment/literacy of citizens
 It aims to provide thrust to the nine pillars of growth areas, namely: Broadband Highways,
Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity, Public Internet Access Programme, e-Governance:
Reforming Government through Technology, e-Kranti: NeGP 2.0, Information for All,
Electronics Manufacturing, IT for Jobs, Early Harvest Programmes
 In order to take the benefits of Digital India to every corner of country, a vast network of
more than 2.5 lakh Common Services Centers have been created
 e-Kranti (Electronic delivery of services) subsumed under Digital India: The focus of the
e-Kranti is to transform the e- Governance services
 Umbrella programme which includes the hitherto National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) or
Bharat net to connect 2,50,000-gram Panchayats by providing internet connectivity to all
citizens

1. MyGov: It aims to establish a link between Government and Citizens towards meeting the
goal of good governance. MyGov encourages citizens as well as people abroad to participate
in various activities
2. Digital Locker System: It serves as a platform to enable citizens to securely store and share
their documents with service providers who can directly access them
3. SWIFT initiative: As a part of the “Ease of Doing Business” initiatives, the Central Board of
Excise & Customs, has taken up implementation of the Single Window Project to facilitate
the Trading Across Borders in India
4. Computerisation of PDS and DBT for mnrega, social pension etc
5. Crime and Criminal tracking network and system
6. Ebiz portal
7. Computerisation of Land Records (Department of Land Resources):
8. Bhoomi Project in Karnataka (Online Delivery of Land Records)
9. Gyandoot (Madhya Pradesh) to provide information to the rural population. The
services offered through the Gyandoot network include: daily agricultural commodity rates
(mandibhav), income certificate, public grievance redressal, BPL family list etc
10. Lokvani Project in Uttar Pradesh: Its objective is to provide a single window, self-
sustainable- Governance solution with regard to handling of grievances
11. e-Procurement Project in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat to standardize procurement
processes across government departments
12. Election commission has come up with ICT vision document 2025 which spells out the
strategy of adopting recent technologies and consolidating existing technologies in the
Election ecosystem.
13. PRAGATI (PRO-ACTIVE GOVERNANCE & TIMELY IMPLEMENTATION: This is a platform
which aimed at addressing common man’s grievances, and simultaneously monitoring and
reviewing important programmes and projects of the Government of India as well as
projects flagged by State Governments
14. The government has decided to universalise the use of Public Financial Management
System (PFMS) for all transactions or payments under the Central Sector Schemes.  PFMS,
managed by the Department of expenditure, is an end-to-end solution for processing
payments, tracking, monitoring, accounting, reconciliation and reporting of transactions.
Various ministries/departments utilise this platform to monitor utilisation of funds provided
to the implementing agencies and states governments
15. The CPGRAMS is an online web enabled application to facilitate speedy redress of public
grievances as it allows for online lodging and status tracking of grievances by the citizen
16. GeM is an Online Market platform to facilitate procurement of goods and services by
various Ministries and agencies of the Government. It aims to ensure that public
 procurement of goods and services in India which is worth more than Rs. 5 lakh crores
annually, is carried out through online platform. GeM is a completely paperless, cashless and
system driven e-market place that enables procurement with minimal human interface
17. E-VIDHAN MISSION MODE PROJECT: It is a mission mode project to digitize and make the
functioning of State Legislatures in India paperless. It is a software suite of public website,
secure website, house applications and mobile apps that fully automate the functioning of
legislative assembly
18. Nagpur Resolution: A holistic approach for empowering citizens was adopted during a
regional conference on ‘Improving Public Service Delivery – Role of Governments’, in Nagpur
19. National e-Governance Service Delivery Assessment 2019 (the assessment was aimed at
improving the overall e-Government development by evaluating the efficiency of service
delivery mechanism from a citizen’s perspective)

Challenges to e-governance
Social Challenges

 Low digital Literacy and low digital dividend: While Literacy rate in India itself is low at 75%,
the digital literacy rate is even lower. As per world bank even among the literates in India
more than 40% are offline and have very limited basic I.T skills to access websites and forms
 RBI states that due to this High Digital divide India has not able to reap its digital dividend
despite having the best IT service sector
 Low digital capability, low digital infrastructure and poor last mile connectivity: Mobile
broadband is yet to reach the 2.5lakh gram panchayats, while 4g is only in urban areas
Internet penetration in urban India was 64.84% in December 2017 and rural internet
penetration was just 20.26%, therefore only the educated workforce tends to benefit from
e-governance
 Issue of Language: while India has 22 official languages, most of e-Governance initiatives are
in English language. Therefore, even a highly literate citizen in a vernacular language may
not be able to reap the benefits
 Resistance to Change: The struggle to change phenomenon can explain much of the
hesitation that occurs in moving from a paper-based to a web-based system to interact with
government
 E-governance for the differentially abled citizens is also a challenge since it requires
websites to incorporate user friendly measures
 Citizens especially the aged do not associate much value addition to e-governance projects
and rely on documentary process

Economic and Technical Challenges

 Privacy and Security: A critical obstacle in implementing e-Governance is ensuring privacy

and safety of the data being stored in servers. Cyber terrorism and warfare are an increasing
threat to e-governance
 Poor interface of government websites due to lack of expertise in IT human resources f
government. The user-friendly index of most government websites is below 50. Government
must utilize private sector expertise in websites and application developing to make them
citizen friendly in developing web interfaces for government sites to make them citizen
friendly especially for disabled
  Cost and maintenance: In developing countries like India, cost is a major obstacle in the path
of implementation of e-governance projects. Since IT is ever evolving it requires constant
updating, maintenance, evolutionary tasks.
 Interoperability: Interoperability is the ability of systems and organizations of different
qualities to work together. The e-Governance applications must have this characteristic so
that the newly developed and existing applications can be implemented together
 Multimodal Interaction: e-Government application should be multi-modal that is providing
the user with multiple modes of interfacing with a system
 Authentication: Secured ways of transactions for the Government services are another issue
of concern. The identity of citizens requesting services needs to be verified

Recommendations of 2nd ARC on e-governance

Building a Conducive e-governance Environment: by Creating and displaying a will to change
within the government, providing political support at the highest level to bring policy changes in e-
governance
Incentivising e-Governance among citizens and Creating awareness in the public with a view to
generating a demand for change
Government Process Re-engineering: Governmental forms, processes and structures should be
redesigned to make them adaptable to e-Governance, backed by procedural, institutional and legal
changes.
Capacity Building and skill upgradation of government IT resources: Capacity building efforts
must attend to both the organizational capacity building as also the professional and skills up
gradation of individuals associated with the implementation of e-Governance
Developing Technological Solutions: Develop a national e-Governance ‘enterprise architecture’
framework as has been done in some countries
Monitoring and Evaluation: Monitoring of e-Governance projects should be done by the
implementing organization during implementation
Public-Private Partnership (PPP): Private sector expertise should be utilized where government
lack expertise
Protecting Critical Information Infrastructure Assets: There is need to develop a critical
information infrastructure assets protection strategy. This should be supplemented with improved
analysis and warning capabilities
The Common Support Infrastructure: The State Data Centres (SDCs) should be maintained by
Government agencies such as NIC as it involves handling of sovereign data
Mission Mode Project on Computerisation of Land Records: Surveys and measurements need to
be carried out in a mission mode utilizing modern technology to arrive at a correct picture of land
holdings, land parcels and rectification of outdated maps
Legal Framework for e-Governance, and Knowledge Management: Union and State
Governments should take proactive measures for establishing Knowledge Management systems as a
pivotal step for administrative reforms

TRANSPARENCY & ACCOUNTABILITY

Accountability means making the public officials answerable for their behaviour
Accountability also means establishing criteria or standards to measure the performance of public
officials
It also means establishing an oversight mechanism or a grievance redressal mechanism to ensure
that standards are met
In a latest Corruption Perception Index, India was ranked at 81st position out of 180 countries by
Transparency International, reflecting high opacity and secrecy in functioning of government

Transparency:
Transparency is widely recognized as core principle of good governance. Transparency means
sharing information and acting in an open manner. Free access to information is a key element in
promoting transparency

Transparency and accountability in Government are mutually reinforcing. Without complete and
correct information (transparency) in public domain how will the civil servants be judged
(Accountability)
In a latest Corruption Perception Index, India was ranked at 81st position out of 180 countries by
Transparency International, reflecting high opacity and secrecy in functioning of government

Need for Accountability, Transparency, Objectivity, Impartiality

A public office enjoys legitimacy and public trust. Hence, it is necessary for the individual who
occupies a public position to rational in his/her decisions rather than being arbitrary
Rationality comes from facts rather than biases
India is a multicultural society with high population of vulnerable, disadvantaged, minorities,
women, and weaker sections along with varied political ideologies. Therefore, Impartiality and Non-
partisanship both form essential foundational values for civil services
It ensures equality, justice and tolerance
It ensures rule of law and constitution rather than rule of men or political philosophies
Increases faith and confidence of public in the government and its machinery due to easy and
corruption free access of services
It ensures morale and efficiency of civil services since transfers and postings will be on merit rather
than political or ideological factors
It prevents tendencies of cronyism, nepotism and factionalism
In case of riots, communal violence or any ethnic conflict, a civil servant with neutral attitude will be
able to take the right action as he/she is free from any type of religious, political or social prejudices
Transparency empowers citizens with information and promotes democratic decision making
Dissemination of Information through ICT and increased use of web-based services improves the
awareness levels of citizens about their rights and powers
Helps in evaluating the ongoing effectiveness of public officials or public bodies
It reduces discretion of officials and helps codify procedures
Avoids conflict of interests-Setting accountability clearly demarcates area of one’s actions where he
or she is required to act
Steps Taken to promote Transparency

1. The Right to Information (RTI) Act was enacted by parliament in 2005 to empower
citizens, promote accountability and transparency in the working of the government and
contain corruption. Open government is critical to an informed public, and an informed
public is critical to democracy. To be covered later

2. Supreme Courts have held that the right to information is a fundamental right flowing
from Article 19 and Article 21 of the Constitution, and that transparency in the working
of public functionaries is critical in a democracy
 3. Prevention of Corruption Act 1988 and Amendments to the Act in 2018: It defines what
constitutes criminal misconduct by a public servant and specifies penal provisions, which
includes jail up to seven years. See rest from civil services

4. Whistle Blowers Protection Act 2014:

The Act provides a mechanism for receiving and inquiring against acts of corruption,
wilful misuse of power or discretion, or criminal offences by public servants
It affords protection against victimisation of the person who complains or anyone who
renders assistance in an inquiry
It provides a broad definition of a whistle blower which goes beyond government officials
and includes any other person or non-governmental organisation.
 It has provisions to conceal the identity of the whistle-blower
 . This is critical as whistle-blowers are routinely subjected to various forms of victimisation —
suspensions, withholding of promotions, threats of violence and attacks.

5. Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions (PBPT) Act 1988 and Benami

Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment (BTPA) Act 2016
To prosecute those possessing assets disproportionate to their legal income.
It amends the definition of benami transactions to add other transactions which qualify as benami,
such as property transactions where the transaction is made in a fictitious name, the owner is not
aware of or denies knowledge of the ownership of the property, the person providing the
consideration for the property is not traceable
Properties held benami are liable for confiscation by the Government without payment of
compensation

6. Digitization –such as Government e-market for procurement, BHIM for e-payments

7. Bringing more transparency in electoral funding via electoral bonds
8. Direct benefit transfers to beneficiaries such as for LPGs etc.
9. Double taxation avoidance agreement with countries such as Mauritius etc.
10. Targeted real estate sector by RERA act

Institutions for Transparency

 Central Vigilance Commission (CVC): The CVC advises the Union Government on all matters
pertaining to the maintenance of integrity in administration
 The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI): It’s the principal investigative agency of the Union
Government in anti-corruption matters. It derives its powers from the Delhi Special Police
Establishment Act, 1946 (DSPE Act)
 Institutions of the Lokpal and the Lokayuktas: The Act allows setting up of anti-corruption
ombudsman called Lokpal at the Centre and Lokayukta at the State-level. The Act seeks to
provide for the establishment of the institution of Lokpal to inquire into allegations of
corruption against certain public functionaries and matters connecting them Under the Act,
it has been made mandatory for public servants to declare their assets and liabilities along
with that of their spouse and dependent children. The Act also ensures that public servants
who act as whistle blowers are protected
 Central Information Commission: It was constituted through an Official Gazette Notification
under the provisions of the Right to Information Act (2005). It entertains complaints and
appeals pertaining to offices, financial institutions, public sector undertakings, etc., under
the Central Government and the Union Territories
Schemes
 PRAGATI aimed at addressing common man’s grievances, and simultaneously monitoring
and reviewing important programmes and projects of the Government of India as well as
states
 Government e-market place to promote transparency in government procurement
 Mechanisms like social audit in MGNREGA, Gram sabha involve people in decision making
process. This ensures accountability as well as equality principle
 Public Financial Management System (PFMS): managed by the Department of expenditure,
is an end-to-end solution for processing payments, tracking, monitoring, accounting,
reconciliation and reporting of transactions

PREVENTIVE VIGILANCE
 It is adoption of a package of measures to improve systems & procedures to
eliminate/reduce corruption, promote transparency and ease of doing business
 Vigilance is defined as watchfulness and alertness. Thus, vigilance administration often
includes an oversight mechanism to take up preventive and punitive anticorruption
measures and ensure functioning of systems in an efficient way

The Santhanam Committee Report (1964) identified major causes of corruption

 Government taking upon itself more than what it could manage by way of regulatory
functions, Too much over centralisation
 Discretion and monopoly of government officials
 High human interface giving scope for personal discretion to different categories of Govt.
servants
 Cumbersome procedures in dealing with various day to day affairs
 Corruption becoming a norm - it has become a part of culture and is no longer regarded as
wrong.
 Low level officials themselves may have trouble earning an honest living. In poor societies,
they are often underpaid, and must provide a stream of payments to patrons at higher
levels. In such settings, bribery, extortion and theft become matters of survival
 Less probability of getting caught and long delay in judicial process
 Demand for action against corruption is weak; civil society not proactive
 Low education and awareness among masses - people having no information about their
rights duties, procedure to complain, rules, laws, etc. & poor grievance redressal mechanism
 No incentive for integrity and probity in public life - honest bureaucrats like Ashok khemka
are punished instead of getting rewarded.
 Absence of ethical training.
 Lack of emotional intelligence in people to understand the socio-economic consequence on
the national and especially poor
 Lack of Values – of integrity, dedication, spirit of public service in public life
 Absence of a formal system of inculcating values, ethics & integrity

Potential Areas of Corruption

 Procurement is a vast area ranging from procurement of store materials & services to
execution of infrastructure projects
 Sale of Goods & Services along with allocation of scarce and / or precious natural resources
is an area of corruption
  Human resource management is common to all organisations and the processes relating to
recruitment, promotion, transfer and posting are prone to manipulation and corruption
 Delivery of services to public although not common to all Public Service Sectors
 Enforcement of Acts, Rules and Regulations is also an area vulnerable to corruption mainly
due to lack of awareness among citizens and ineffective grievance redressal mechanism

Preventive vigilance measures

1. Simplification and standardization of rules by undertaking a complete review of existing

rules and regulations.
simplification of procedures, identification and repeal of obsolete/archaic laws/rules,
identification and shortening of various forms and regulations to reduce the citizen
dependency on clerical and official assistance

2. discretionary power of public servants be eliminated by Adoption of IT and E-

Governance
Leveraging technology - such as E-procurements, E-payments, websites for dissemination of
information and creating awareness, CCTV in places of public dealing, GPS enabled devices / RFIDs,
computer assisted audit techniques for detecting fraud
It provides Fast, Convenient and Cost-Effective Service Delivery
Increases Transparency, Accountability and Reduces Corruption
It helps to reduce the discretionary powers of government officials due to less human
interface
Dissemination of Information through ICT and increased use of web-based services
improves the awareness levels of citizens about their rights and powers.
Therefore, it empowers the citizens through information and enhances their participation

3. Legislation to check intentional losses to public revenue: As suggested by the NCRWC there
is a need for a comprehensive law that makes the public servants liable for the losses made to
the State by their mala fide actions or omissions of a palpable character

4. Legislation for confiscation of illegally acquired assets of the public servants

5. Strengthening of criminal judicial system: Strict enforcement of laws, setting up of fast track
special courts, strengthening of prosecution machinery , punishment for corruption should be
prohibitive enough to discourage the breach of law. Strengthening judicial system is one of
the most important requisites for ensuring probity in governance

6. Public Participation: Encouraging public to take recourse to anti-corruption laws and

utilizing the services of CVC, CBI, Lokpal. protection to whistle blowers is also must

7. Regular and routine inspections, surprise inspections, audit and reviews keep a check on
aberrant and corrupt behaviour
8. Transparency in appointments of high level posts – by deliberating and discussion with
leader of opposition and other stake holders
9. Inculcating moral values - Inculcating ethical behaviour among employees, public,
particularly the younger generation is an important tool of preventive vigilance
10. Integrity pact - a written agreement between Government/Government Department/
Government Company, etc. and all the bidders agreeing to refrain themselves from bribery,
 collusion, etc. It is implemented by CVC and sanctions are applied on violation of the pact. It
is monitored through CVC nominated IEM (Independent External Monitor).
11. Integrity Index (to be introduced shortly) Through this CVC will bring out annual
scores/rankings of public sector undertakings, financial institutions, departments and
ministries by linking the essential drivers of vigilance with long-term efficiency, profitability
and sustainability of public organisations. It will be based on bench marking internal
processes and controls within an organisation as well as management of relationship and
expectation of outside stake holders
12. Ethical Guidance should include training in ethics awareness and development of essential
skill for ethical analysis
13. There is need to create an independent office of Ethics Commissioner, similar to that in
14. United States, who should provide leadership in ethics and values. The Ethics Commissioner
should issue and interpret rules which govern standards of conduct
15. Ethics audits to identify risks to the integrity of the most important processes
16. There should be separate Code of Conduct for Ministers, members of legislature and other
elected representatives
17. The Code of Conduct for civil servants should be amplified. It should prohibit them from
associating with NGOs and hold elected office even in any club or social organization
18. The Second Administrative Reforms Commission in its 4th report suggested partial state
funding of elections; tightening of anti-defection law
19. Ensuring Accountability and transparency
20. Code of Ethics and Conduct for civil servants as Recommended by ARC
A key element of sound administration is the development and acceptance of a comprehensive Code
of Ethics and Conduct, which sets out, in very practical and clear terms, the standards of behaviour
expected of all public servants
The key elements of such a Code
Limitations on Political Activities
Limitations on the Acceptance of Gifts, Rewards, Hospitality and Discounts
Methods to avoid conflict of Interest
Confidentiality and use of Official Information
Policy and rules for using government property, infrastructure such as vehicles, houses, etc.
Private Purchases of Government Property by Employees
The ethical framework should provide for prevention and guidance, investigation, disciplinary action
and prosecution
Violation and breaches of Code of Ethics should invite sanction and punishment under the
disciplinary rules
2nd ARC in its report ‘Ethics in Governance’ has elaborated on values expected in Civil Servants
Civil Service values as recommended by the Nolan Committee (UK) Selflessness
Integrity Objectivity Accountability Openness Honesty Leadership