Corruption Control, Today's Necessity

Shyam Shankar Joshi

It is a matter of great anxiety that the rampancy of corruption is spreading around the world. Corruption is an act taking advantage of one's official position or influence by discriminatory and unfair means to gain economic benefits for himself or something involving his personal interest. The constitution provides that sovereign power resides with the people, and consequently public service employees are supposed to be the servants of the people. They derive their authority from the mandate of the people. Corruption means deviation from this principle, that is, abuse of authority.

The term corruption carries a different meaning in different times and there are different types of corruption. The first type of corruption is simple administrative corruption. This is an act, largely done by a middle or low-ranking government official who are in a position in a having the authority to do on public works and they take or demand of bribe in returned. The second type of corruption is petty political corruption. Main participants in this type of corruption are high-ranking bureaucrats, politicians and business persons. Their way of working takes the form of a concessionary loans to certain business groups or individuals, tax exemptions, subsidies, sale of government property below market price. In return for such favors a large amount of money is paid to such high-ranking officer or politician.

The third type of corruption is structural corruption. The head of a state, the head of the government and his aides abuse the functions of government agencies and make unfair allocations of budgetary resources, amend the taxation system and sell government property all for personal gain. This type of corruption is the crime committed by key exercisers of state power. The fourth and the last type of corrupt practices occur on the international stage known as international corruption. There are two kinds. One is the corruption that occurs in the course of business activities carried to overseas by Multinational Corporations. This takes the form of a bribe given to the politicians and bureaucrats of host countries by foreign companies with the aim of obtaining privileged information ahead of competitors, wining the bid for the construction of a dam, road, railroad, water resources project or telecommunications facility, or selling certain goods, equipment to their government. The other kind is that involved in foreign aid projects.

Corruption is becoming one of the serious problems facing both the governments and civil societies of most developing and under developed countries. In this regard, Nepal is not an exception. The government despite her serious commitment to eliminate corruption and ensure good governance often find it difficult to completely uproot, if not check corruption.

Transparency international has published a yearly report recently detailing the degree of rampancy of corruption in major countries. Denmark, Newzealand, Singapore and Finland have been found the most corruption-free countries in the world while Somalia of Africa, Afghanistan and Myanmar of Asia as the most corrupted countries of the world. In this latest corruption index 2010 released by Transparency International, Nepal is in 146th position out of 178 countries. It means 32 countries are more corrupted than Nepal. Still Nepal has been found the most corrupted country amount the South Asian countries. So, the question arises, who is responsible for this? Finance minister or political parties.

The general perception among the people is that corruption is quite rampant in Nepal and this social evil is gradually corroding norms and values of democracy. Apart from this, the people also understand it as one of the major hindrances of good governance and all round development of the nation. Corruption, if not controlled in time, will sooner or later spread all over the society and sectors of the economy. Therefore the government has to come up with necessary initiatives to check not only corruption but also to punish them who abuse the authority and take advantages in return.

After the restoration of democracy in 1989, the Constitution of the Kingdom of Nepal 1990 has established an independent constitutional Commission for the Investigation for Abuse of Authority (CIAA). People hoped that the CIAA would wash away the corruption from the country. But, due to the lack of adequate power CIAA was no more a toothless tiger and was not able to fulfill its stated duties. Later on, when CIAA was empowered adequately with a new bill 'Corruption Control Act 1959' and established Special Court, it brought action against even the then ministers and top-level bureaucrats involved therein in the Special Court with jurisdiction in accordance with law. Therefore, when the House of Representatives was re-instated, the same leaders who were charged with the crime of corruption, irregularities and brought forward for prosecution, demanded removal of CIAA's the then Chief Commissioner Surya Nath Upadhyay.

Such acts of politicizing an institution like CIAA from any responsible side severely weaken our institutions. Such activities and decisions may be the cause of national tragedy and a major setback in the fight to reduce corruption. The chief of CIAA Mr. Upadhyay was retired since a long time as he completed his service period, but the government has not appointed a new chief up till now. At present, CIAA is running by the government officials only. All the commissioners are retired. In such case, the government and the leaders of different political parties should rise above the politics and strongly reject any motion for the politicization of CIAA.

In present Interim Constitution also CIAA is a statutory body and exercising the same power as before. CIAA investigates, warns and files the case in the court if the person is found guilty on corruption but does not judge and sentence. To judge and sentence is the duty of the Special Court and Supreme Court. But the judiciary in Nepal also is one of the corrupted components of the state. The 'Global Corruption Report 2007' published by Transparency International shows that. All the mechanism of counter-corruption legal and institutional setup looks like a showpiece. Corruption makes an entry when the twin heads of nepotism and favoritism are present in the society. For corruption to go out of control means creating a situation of anarchy. Therefore, corruption must be controlled if not eliminated.