I had been to Indonesia recently for a holiday. My visit was not just to Jakarta the capital city. I visited a number of small towns around Sumatra Island. One thing that struck me (other than the scenic beauty all around) in most parts of Indonesia that I have visited, both in main town and small villages, is the condition of the roads. It is quite good in comparison with the Indian roads; especially in comparison with the Mumbai roads that I am familiar with. I found this quite surprising, although this is an equally (if not more) corrupt country and also has torrential rains like we have in India.
Mostly these roads were constructed during the regime of Suharto who had to relinquish office in late nineties on account of allegations including rampant corruption and nepotism. However, during long years of autocratic rule of Suharto, he gave enormous focus to development of the country and its infrastructure. He also insisted on good quality implementation. As the corruption in most of the projects was on and above the cost for implementation, there was not much compromise in quality. In India the contracts are awarded mostly to the lowest quote. With rampant corruption in many of the projects, the quality of implementation suffers and it is less transparent and difficult to prove.
We need to find a solution to this dilemma. How can we strengthen the quality of implementation of our public good projects without compromising the democratic governance we have established successfully? Is it a part of our culture not to have civic sense?
One of the prime reasons for this could be the lack of proper regulatory framework which is manned with experts and enabled with necessary enforcement powers. The right kind of law enforced by the right kind of guy.
The next problem is the low and time consuming conviction rate, especially that of white collar crimes. With such poor probability of conviction there is very little incentive for compliance. But the upside profit potential act as an incentive for cheating on quality of implementation in most of the public contracts.
It is easy to hope for a total transformation in enforcement, judicial processes and its turnaround time. But will be a bit impractical to expect any quick change in the habits and practices of a large cross section of section of the society. Because it involves human beings and their values; both of which un-predictable.
Let us address the factors that are more predictable. The first one is the legal framework itself. It is important that we get the governing framework right ie; the rules of the game. If we ensure that this is clear and enforceable, the foundation becomes strong.
The next key factor that provides stability is transparency. Transparency in public expenditure; how much, for which project, paid to whom and with what outcome. Let this be out made public to strengthen the hand of the concerned citizens, watchful NGOs and the fourth estate.
The right to information act (RTI) is a good beginning in this direction. However the paucity in infrastructure in meeting the demand of information blunts its cutting edge, although it acts as a strong enabler. In many places, the human interface either stonewalls the inquiry or the requests get buried under paper.
Information technology can play a major role in here. We could establish a system for tracking the development projects undertaken by the government into a central repository. If we establish such a central repository then it would be easy for making this information available online, on demand. Such an online dissemination of information can be the driving force for decentralized social audit, by the people whose life is affected by each of these projects. It then is no more under the mercy of disinterested bureaucrats for whom these projects are often milking cows or at best job to do or a statistic to report.
The transparency portal established by the Brazilian government is an excellent example for such an initiative. From the feedback of some of my friends who visited Brazil recently, this portal really works and contributes to reduction in corruption.
The whole cost for establishment of such a system would only be few tens of millions and benefits that the society will enjoy will be hundreds of times the cost.
No comments:
Post a Comment