Fighting corruption and Social media, Presented in ICSA 3 day National Convention on Corruption

1. Fighting Corruption
& Social Media
Mahesh Kumar
Satta Panchayat Iyyakam & ChennaiNEXT

2. 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”

3. DETERENCE
Law and Punishment

4. 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)

5. 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

6. 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

7. Effectiveness of current System

8. Effectiveness of current System
CBI has around 2000 investigative officers and FBI of USA has 60,000 investigative officers

9. 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

10. 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

11. Information &
Monitoring

12. 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

13. 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."

14. Proactive Information
• Tenders Details online by Chennai Corporation
• Birth and Death Certificate Online
• Land Records Online Efforts

15. Monitoring
• The Comptroller & Auditor General of India (CAG)
• Public sector auditing and accounting
• No Systematic Audit for Major Expenses
• NREGA
• PDS

16. 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

17. CITIZEN CHARTER
+ Awareness of Procedures

18. Simplification of Rules
and Procedure
Derugulation

19. Simplification and Deregulation
• Till Mid 70’s – Cyclist were required to have license
• Land Conversion

20. Decentralisation

21. Judiciary
Criminal 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

22. Political Funding
MPs – 34% Criminal Cases , 21% - Serious Criminal Cases
Legislators with Criminal Cases : 700/4072

23. Social Media

24. 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

25. Social Media
• Facebook followers
• SPI : 72 thousand +
• Arapoor : 43 thousand +
• Rumours – Double Edged Sword

26. Citizen Engagement
Gallup Civic Engagement Index - 79/140
CAF World Giving Index - 106/145

27. Hope
CSIS Youth Citizen Participation Rank of India is : 3/30