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Unit b: Corruption Issues and Problems.

Corruption in India is an issue that adversely effects the countrys economy


and the credibility of Central, State and local government agencies. In a study
done in 2008, Transparency International reported that 90% of Indians had
firsthand experience of paying bribes or using contacts to get service performed
by public officials. According to 2016 results of the Corruption Perception Index of
Transparency International India ranks in 79th place out of a total of 176 countries.
Significant is to point out that the largest contribution to corruption are
entitlement programmes and social spending schemes enacted by the
Government of India. Mention may be made of the Mahatma Gandhi National
Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and The National Rural Health
Mission (NRHM).

Corruption in India is an issue that has serious implications for protecting


the rule of law and ensuring access to justice.

Professor Bibek Debroy and Lavreesh Bhandari have mentioned in their


book Corruption in India: The DNA and RNA that public officials in India may be
cornering as much as 92 billion (US$ 4 billion) as 1.26 percent of the GDP through
corruption. They have also mentioned in their book that most bribery is in
government delivered services and the transport and real estate industries.

Bribery and corruption are pervasive but some areans tend to more issues
than others. A 2013 Ernst and Young study has stated in its report that the
industries perceived to be the most vulnerable to corruption are the
infrastructure and Real Estate, Metals and Mining, Aerospace and Defence and
Power and Utilities. Some specific factors may be mentioned that make a sector,
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more susceptible to bribery and corruption risks than others. Some factors which
are responsible for the rampant corruption in certain vulnerable sectors are due
to the presence of middlemen, large value contracts and liasoning activities.

Centre for Media Study India (CMS India) claims in its 2010 India Corruption
Study report that socio-economically weaker sections of the Indian Society are
the mostly adversely affected by corruption in government.These include the
rural and urban poor, although the study claims that nationwide perception of
corruption has come down between 2005 and 2010. But in recently corruption
has increased ten folds since 2010 and continues to grow relentlessly on a daily
basis.

Right to Public Service Legislation:

Right to public services, legislation which has been enacted in 19 states of


India guarantees time bound delivery of services for various public services
rendered by the government to citizens and provide mechanisms for punishing
the errant public servant who is deficient in providing the service stipulated under
the statue. Right to service legislation is meant to reduce consumption among the
government officials and to increase transparency and public accountability.

Anti-corruption Laws enacted By the Government of India.

Public Servants in India can be imprisoned for several years and penalized
for corruption, under the following Acts namely:

1. Indian Peal Code, 1860.


2. Prosecution Section of Income Tax Act, 1961.
3. The Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.

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4. The Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Act 1988 to prohibit benami
transactions.
5. Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

Punishment for bribery in India can range from six months to seven years.

India is also a signatory to the United Nations Corruption Convention


against corruption since 2005 (ratified 2011).

The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 which came into force from 16
January 2014 seeks to provide for the establishment of the institution of Lokpal to
inquire into allegations of corruption against certain public functionaries.

Whinstle Blower Protection Act, 2011, which provides a mechanism, to


investigate alleged corruption and misuse of power by public servants and also
protect anyone who exposes alleged wrong doing in government bodies, projects
and offices, has received the assent of the President of India on 9 May 2014 and is
pending for notification by the Central Government.

At present, there are no legal provisions to check graft in the private sector
in India. Government has proposed amendments in existing acts and certain new
bills for checking corruption in private sector. Big-ticket corruption in India is
mainly witnesses in the operations of large commercial or corporate entities. In
order to prevent bribery on supply side, it is proposed that key managerial
personnel companies and also the company shall be held liable for offering bribes
to gain undue benefits.

The Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 provides that the properties
of corrupt public servants shall be confiscated. However, the Government is

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considering incorporating provisions for confiscation or forfeitures of the property
of corrupt public servants into the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 to make it
more self-contained and comprehensive.

A Committee headed by the Chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes


(CBDT) has been constituted to examine ways to strengthen laws to curb
generation of black money in India, its illegal transfer abroad and its recovery. The
Committee shall examine the existing legal and administrative frame work to deal
with the menace of generation of black money through illegal means including
inter-alia the following:

(1) Declaring wealth generated illegally as national asset.


(2) Enacting / amending laws to confiscate and recover such assets, and
(3) Providing for exemplary, punishment against its perpetrators.

CAUSES OF CORRUPTIN IN INDIA:

The causes of corruption in India include excessive regulations, complicated


tax and licensing systems, numerous government departments with opaque
bureaucracy and discretionary powers, monopoly of government controlled
institutions on certain goods and services delivery and the lack of transparent
laws and processes. These are significant variations in the level of corruption and
in the governments efforts to reduce cession option across different areas of
India.

PROBLEM OF CORRUPTION:

Corruption in India is a problem that has serious implications for protecting


the rule of law and ensuring access to justice, As of December 2009, 120 of

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Indias 524 members of parliament were accused of various crimes, under Indias
First Information Report procedure wherein anyone can allege another to have
committed a crime. Many of the biggest scandals since 2010 have involved high
level government officials including Cabinet Ministers and Cjhief Ministers, such
as the 2G Spectrum Scan (1.7 lakh crore) (US$ 27 billion), the 2010 Common
Wealth Games Scam (70,000 crore (US$ 1 billion), the Adarsh Housing Society
Scam, the Coal Mining Scam (1.86 lack crore (US$ 29 billion), the Mining scandal
in Karnataka and the Cash for Vote Scams.

HOTBEDS OF RMPANT CORRUPTION:

1. BUREAUCRACY:

Government regulations and also the police share in bribe money to the
extent of 43 percent and 45 percent each respectively. It may be noted that the
enroute stoppages at check points and entry points can take up to 11 houses per
day. About 60% of these (forced) stoppages on roads by concerned authorities
such as government regulations, police, forest, sales and excise, octroi and
weighing and measuring departments are for extorting money. The loss in
productivity due to these stoppages is an important matter of national concern,
the number of truck trips could increase by 40 percent, it forced delays are
avoided. Interesting it is to note that, according to a 2007 report published by the
World Bank, the travel time for a Delhi-Mumbai trip could be reduced by about 2
days per trip if the corruption and associated regulatory stoppages to exact bribes
were eliminated.

A 2009 survey of the leading economies of Asia revealed Indian


bureaucracy to be the least efficient out of Singapore, Hongkong, Thailand, South
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Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines and Indonesia, but
that working with Indias civil servants was a slow and painful process.

2. TENDERING PROCESSES AND AWARDING CONTRACTS:

A 2006 report claimed state funded construction activities in Uttar Pradesh


such as building of roads were dominated by construction mafias, consisting of
cabals of corrupt public works officials, materials, supplies, politicians and
construction contractor.

Problems caused by corruption in government funded projects are not


confined to Uttar Pradesh state alone. According to the World Bank aid
programmes are beset by corruption, bad administration and under payments.
For instance, the report cites, that only 40 percent of grain handed over to the
poor reaches its intended target. The World Bank study finds that they public
distribution programmes and social spending contracts have proven to be a waste
due to corruption.

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Unit C : GLOBALISATION AND ADMINISTRATION :

IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION ON PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION :

The following 12 aspects highlight the impact of globalization on public


Administration :

1 There has been a major change in the configuration of public-private


spheres in favour of the globalising corporate sector. The leading economic
role of the government and the public sector in the allocation of resources,
the equitable distribution of wealth, the stabilization of economy and
economic growth has been overruled by the globalizing corporate cities.
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and increasing globalization as well as
the financial crisis of the state, the traditional administrative state has
come under attack from all fronts, but especially from the corporate elites
who no longer see a need for the welfare state. Therefore, the dismantling
of the administrative welfare state had negative consequences for public
administration and citizens. The public sphere and the space for citizen
involvement have been shrinking as a result of globalisation and
restructuring of the government. However strong voices have been
resonated which have given a clarion call to the public call to the public
administrators that under the changed circumstances they should engage
themselves by playing a proactive role in managing societal resources away
from the dominant control of globalising corporate elites. Their future
legitimacy will be based on this action.

2 A bigger challenge lies in the change in the character and activities of the
state and of public administration from civil administration to non-civil
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administration. For several decades, the traditional administrative state
balanced corporate elite interests with broad public interests thus
providing the social and political stability necessary for capital accumulation
and system legitimacy. And it played a key role in system maintenance and
regime enhancement. Now the balanced administrative state has been
replaced by the corporate-coercive state which is characterized by a
massively growing coercive bureaucracy in harge of incarcerating millions
of citizens considered potential threats to social order. Thus public
administration is being transformed from traditional civil administration to
non civil administration of the public not their affairs for social control and
facilitation of capital accumulation. This is a major change in the character
of the state and should be resulted by all public administrators with a
social, conscience.

3 The globalizing state has forced public administration to do more with less.
Indeed, public administration must perform the impossible tank of high
output under severe psychological conditions of fear and downsized
personnel setting them up for failure only to prove the corporate claim of
government inefficiency. Public administrations can and should document
their records of high performance as well as failure of the corporate market
place.

4. By extension, the professionalization of public administration is a response


to the challenge of globalisation : Professionalisation brings both
institutional and moral and ethical standards to public service at the global
level exposing the fallacies of globalising transnational elites while learning

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from their Organisational and technical skills. The excesses of globalisation
and market failure will invite more government, intervention. A
professionally sound, public admistration should be ready for future action.

5. Globalisation pushes for increased privatization. Which promotes greater


opportunities for corruption ( Could 1991) Corruption has turned socictal
resources into illegal, immoral and unproductive activities. It also
challenges the very foundations of societal health and destroy citizens trust
in leadership and sytem legitimacy. Privatisation is based on the market
based rational- choice theory of self-interested individualisim in search of
maximizing self interests at almost any cost to community and society. This
global corporate cultute is in part managed through human resources
management practices many of which are in sharp contract with national
and community cultures. Public administrators must resist the market-
based concepts of treating, citizens as consumers and denigrating them to
market commodities.

6. Globalisation tends to promote elitism and enriches elites business,


political, military and managerial most of whom operate as subsidiaries
(Schneisdes 1993) as agents of transnational corporations. Many elites in
less- developed nations run repressive regimes which violate the human
rights of their own people.

7. Globalisation threatens communities by removing local control and making


unelevant the participatory role of citizens and local public administrators
to make significant decisions that affect peoples lives. Public administrators
should try to minimise such uncertainties by attaching long-term strings to

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dealing with global corporations. They should also treat citizens with
respect and efficiently.

8 There is a growing knowledge explosion in public administration and


related fields, including in its sub-fields of comparative and international
administration (Savitch 1998) Ali Faarazzmand is in unison with Ferrel
Headys (1998) statement that these two subfields have been separately
and disjointedly promoted in the past decades. There is a new subfield of
globalisation in town now and there is a need to integrate the studies of
public administration from the comparative, international and global
perspectives Practitioners will be enlightened by the exposure to these
needed studies and will likely be better administrators in the future global
village.

9 Learning more about public administration from a comparative perspective


broadens our world outlook. American students and scholars can broaden
their personal and professional worldviews by appreciating the cultural
institutional and religious underspinnings of the administrative cultures of
less developed countries, some of which have rich cultural and governance
heritages. Globalisation challenges the Americal parochial and ethnocentric
tradition of public administration and shatters the politics- administration
dichotomy while providing immense opportunities for consultancy and
corporate related public, management practices in less- developed
countries.

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10. Globalisation challenges the human conscience of the public administration
community. There are many issues that challenge their conscience
including the conditions and deprivations of the poor.

11. As guardians of global community interests public administrators in more


and less-developed countries have a global responsibility to act, ethically
and morally in a coordinated manner. They must expose and fight
corruption at any level and at any time.

12. Globalisation does not end the state and public administration. There is a
new global challenge that broadens public administrations scope of
research, practice and teaching. We hope that prosperity for all will be the
outcome.

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TEXTS/ ESSENTIAL READINGS

1 A.C. Kapur : Principles of Political Science

2 Aristotle : The New Science of Politics

3 A Lawrence Lowell : Essays on Government

4 A Giddens : New Rules of Sociological method

5 Arthur Bentley : The Process of Government

6 Andrew Hacker : Political Theory, On Philosophy, Science and Ideas

7 Alexander Hamilton : Federalist Papers

8 C. Nottis: Deconstruction : Theory and Practice

9 Charles Merrian : New Aspects of Politics

10 David C. Apter : Comparative Politics

11 David Easton : Systems Theory

12 David Held : Political Theory Today

13 David Beetham : Legitimation of Power

14 Ernest Geller: Cause and Meaning in the Social Science

15 F.J. Greenstein and N.W. Piosby, eds., Strategies of Eenquiry, Vol. 7,


Hand book of Political Science.
16 Fred N. Kerlinger: Foundations of Behavioural Research

17 Gabriel Almond : Structural Functional Approach

18 Harold J. Laski : Grammar of Politics

19 Herbert Simon : On Decision Making

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20 Hans Gadamer: Truth and Method

21 Ham J. Morgenthau : Politics Among Nations : Struggle for Power and


Peace
22 James Bryce : Modern Democracies

23 James Bryce : American Commonwealth

24 John Galtung: Theory and Methods of Social Research

25 J.W. Garner: An Introduction to Political Science.

26 J.S. Mill : Representative Government

27 James Madison :On Constitutional Government

28 J.S. Ursock ed: Structuralism and since : From Levi Strauss

29 Karl R. Popper: The Logic of Scientific Discovery.

30 Ludwig Wittgenstein : On Hermeneutics

31 L.L. Thurstone: Political Science and Psychology.

32 Leonard D. White : An Introduction to the Study of Public


Administration
33 Max Weber : The Methodology of Social Science.

34 Mohit Bhattacharya :Public Administration

35 Max Weber : On Bureaucracy

36 K K Ghai: Indian Government and Politics.

37 Plato : The Republic

38 Quincy Wright : World Politics

39 Robert A Dahl : Modern Political Analysis

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40 R.G. Gettell : Introduction to Political Science

41 S.P. Varma, Modern Political Theory

42 S.L. Varma, Advanced Mordern Political Theory

43 V.D. Mahajan : Political Theory

44 Woodrow Wilson : Politics Administration Dichotomy

45 Vinay Kumar Malhotra: International Relation.

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