More disclosures of corruption in the govt?

The trend of falling voluntary disclosures of corruption in the government appears to be reversing with the government strengthening norms to protect identity of the whistleblowers.

Updated on: Aug 10, 2014, 23:32:58 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The trend of falling voluntary disclosures of corruption in the government appears to be reversing with the government strengthening norms to protect identity of the whistleblowers.

The CVC — mandated to monitor public interest disclosure and protection of informants — has witnessed a dip of 23% in total number of complaints received between 2012 and 2013. In 2013, 698 complaints were received as against 804 in 2012 and 901 in 2011.

However, the body has received about 450 complaints in the first six months of 2014 which indicates that the trend may be reversing.

Venkatesh Nayak, programme office in Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) says that as the CVC does not publicise details of action taken on whistleblower complaints and the outcomes of its investigation, whistle blowing on corruption is not an incentive for honest and sincere government officials.

“The CVC has to do a lot more hard work to inform people about the details of its achievements to inspire confidence. It is only then civil servants would start exposing corruption and impact of public disclosure resolution of 2004 could be seen,” he said.

The lack of transparency on the part of CVC to whistleblower complaints is also a reason for a few complaints received despite the perception of high corruption in government offices, especially those dealing directly with people.

That was evident from the public disclosure complaint data made available to Parliament in the current session. The maximum complaints were received against the railways, followed by public sector banks and income tax department. There were complaints against other public dealing offices like the municipal corporation of Delhi.

Several complaints were also received against prominent public sector undertakings like Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Damodar Valley Corporation, the information collected by CHRI says.

Things may, however, change for better when the whistleblower protection act comes into force. The law was notified on 12 May 2014 but has not become effective as the department of personnel and training is still to finalise draft regulations making the law operative.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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