Watchdog says India less corrupt, but public sceptical
| Published: Monday, 13 November, 2006, 09:41 AM Doha Time |
NEW DELHI: India has become less corrupt domestically, graft watchdog Transparency International said in its latest annual survey, but Indian analysts and members of the public are not so convinced.
India’s ranking on the agency’s Corruption Perception Index 2006, based on surveys with business people and analysts, improved from 88 in 2005 to 70 this year, and its honesty score rose from 2.9 to 3.3.
The least corrupt countries in the world — Finland, Iceland and New Zealand — tied for first place with honesty scores of 9.6, according to the survey released last week.
But Kuldeep Mathur, a former professor of governance at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University who has studied Indian bureaucracy, was unconvinced about India’s ratings improvement.
“I don’t think there’s much credibility in drawing a conclusion that India is now doing better than it was doing before,” said Mathur, who believes procedural red tape must be cut to reduce corruption.
“The number of forms that have to be filled in, the number of inquiries that have to be made… I’ve not seen any evidence that procedures at work have undergone a change.”
The nation has long been notorious for corruption, with Indians paying $4.6bn in bribes each year to obtain basic services such as water and electricity, according to another Transparency study.
But Mathur said new technology held the potential to change the way things have worked for decades in India.
“The prime example of this is the railways bookings and reservations” so people no longer have to pay bribes to get seats, he said.
Technological changes like those in the railways as well as in record-keeping are some of the forces behind this year’s improved score, an official with the Indian arm of Transparency said.
“Activism on the part of the courts, the Supreme Court and high courts, has (also) helped,” said Santosh Kumar Agarwal, vice-chairman of Transparency India.
He highlighted the role of the national Right-to-Information Act, in place for a year. Under it, citizens can petition government agencies for information, which must be released within a fixed amount of time.
Newspapers regularly report on acts of government wrongdoing uncovered by intrepid citizens using the act.
But Indians on the street were more cautious about the country’s improved ratings.
In New Delhi’s commercial centre, Connaught Place, people said civil servants were as likely to ask for bribes as ever but citizens could accomplish some tasks now using the Internet and did not have to deal face-to-face with the bureaucracy.
“People are more educated nowadays. That helps,” said Pradeep Kumar Jain, 31, a cigarette and sweet seller, who first laughed when asked if he thought the country was less corrupt but then said things were “slightly better.”
“You can get more work done on computer, by the Internet, it’s easier to find information,” Jain said.
Telephone numbers for many government officials and agencies are now available online along with information about application procedures and fees.
“Because of computerisation and e-governance there’s much more supervision and checking by senior people,” said former bureaucrat N C Saxena who has written extensively about graft in India’s administrative services.
But based on his travels as a member of an Indian policy advisory body, he added, “I don’t think there has been a substantial change. In some places it’s up, in some places down.”
The manager of a Delhi parking lot said things were as bad as ever.
“If anything corruption is going up with inflation,” said Amresh Kumar Tiwari, 35, in the parking business for a decade.
“You can’t get any government work done without paying a bribe. Otherwise it’s the same old delaying tactics: Come today, no, come tomorrow, come the day after. It won’t happen fast. With bribes, it gets done fast.” – AFP
