Symposium

Topic: CORRUPTION

16 December 2009 Symposium on Corruption from 4:00pm to 6:00pm at Law Auditorium.

Speakers:

   1. Mr. A V Krishnan, IPS, Retd. DGP
   2. Mr. Vishwas Pandhare, IPS, SP (ACB), Pune
   3. Adv. Mr. Asim Sarode
   4. Mr. P M Dhakephalkar, Retd. Judge

Lord Acton`s well-known aphorism states that “power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Corruption by business undercuts economic growth and can undermine government institutions, political systems and citizens’ trust in markets and democracy. It is a major obstacle to development whether we speak of greed based corruption by the elites or need based corruption among the low wage employees.

In India, we face corruption at almost all governmental offices, quasi governmental agencies and sometimes even public sector companies. We are asked to pay bribes to get simple tasks done like making a drivers license, renewing a passport etc. It is extremely frustrating for a person, who is not used to surviving in an environment, where you need to bribe for everything.

In 1986, the United Nations declared that the right to development is an inalienable human right by virtue of which every human person and all people are entitled to participate in, contribute, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in which all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realized. n 1997, UNDP research concluded that corruption has a pervasive and troubling impact on the poor, since it distorts public choices in favour of the wealthy and powerful, and reduces the state’s ability to provide a social safety net. Such corruption would therefore interfere with the right to development, which is an inalienable right enjoyed by all people including the poor India regularly joins China and Russia at the top of the global bribery index
— Ordinary people pay bribes worth £2.5 billion a year for public services
— Civil servants are poorly paid and open to temptation. Police are the most corrupt, followed by lower courts and land administration
— Traffic police pay to be posted at junctions that are fertile ground for kickbacks
— Every bag of cement that goes into Indian roads has involved a bribe

Sources: Transparency International, Times research 2009.

Is it possible to contain corruption in our society? Corruption is a cancer, which every Indian must strive to cure. Many new leaders when come into power declare their determination to eradicate corruption but soon they themselves become corrupt and start amassing huge wealth.

There are many myths about corruption, which have to be exploded if we really want to combat it. Some of these myths are: Corruption is a way of life and nothing can be done about it. Only people from underdeveloped or developing countries are prone to corruption. We will have to guard against all these crude fallacies while planning measures to fight corruption.

Corruption undermines democracy and destroys the credibility of the government. The problem of corruption is an issue of serious interest not only in India but in all regions of the world. The modernization of the state, including deregulation, privatization and the simplification of government procedures, reduces the opportunities for corruption. All aspects of public administration in a democracy must be transparent and open to public scrutiny.

Rights based approaches focus on raising levels of accountability in the development process by identifying claimholders (and their entitlements) and corresponding duty holders (and their obligations).In this regard, they look both at the positive obligations of duty holders (to protect, promote and provide) and at their negative obligations (to abstain from violations). Where duty bearers are corrupt, they work against both positive and negative obligations. Improving integrity, or developing and implementing strategies for the prevention or control of corruption, is therefore an integral part of ensuring accountability

Object of the symposium:
To find out the ways in solving the difficulties in prosecuting corrupt officials. This symposium should highlight the lacunas in the current system and the ways to cure them. The speakers would certainly enlighten us with their in depth knowledge.