Money under tables

In May last year, the personal assistant to the Union minister of state for finance was arrested for having taken a bribe from a senior revenue service officer in order to facilitate a transfer for him to Mumbai. Now why would a man cough up Rs 5 lakh for a mere posting? You don’t need to know rocket science to figure out this one. Mumbai — as the country’s commercial capital — has a well-deserved reputation for rewarding “enterprising” revenue, excise and customs officers and Thursday’s massive haul of Rs 2.75 crore, allegedly belonging to a central excise commissioner, did nothing to counter that perception.

India is among the world’s most corrupt societies, as the annual reports of Transparency International never fail to remind us. This represents not just a social and moral blot on the nation. Corruption, let us remember, also undermines economic progress and growth. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has just promised the hotshots of global finance that they would find an enabling environment in India for their investments. This, by its very definition, would mean a corruption-free system or at least one that is quick to check financial misdemeanours. Which means not just a shoring up the criminal justice system, but the serious reform of administration.

Corruption in the bureaucracy is, of course, a familiar concern and one that has attracted the attention of innumerable committees. But there are some suggestions in the Hota Committee Report on civil services reforms, which has just made it to the public sphere, that demand not just nods of agreement but an urgent translation into policy and action. They range from scrupulous attention to appraisals so that the corrupt can be weeded out to making the disclosure of assets compulsory and public to the strict and quick penalising of errant officers. If we don’t do this, money will continue to grow under tables.