The former Comptroller and Auditor
General of India, Mr. Vinod Rai, has set an outstanding benchmark for
leadership in government. If India is ever to lead the world League of Nations,
we need officers that can aspire for this benchmark and exceed it.
The government of India has always
had a cohort of excellent officers whose potential is often suppressed by petty
vested interest. There is a pressing need for such leadership in the states of
the republic, especially in junior rungs of bureaucracy.
The democracy in India is going
through its own gilded age, officers in the junior and lower bureaucracy have been
taking governance from the district administration to state government
secretariat to a new low.
In the largest state of the
country, bidding for projects has translated to commission bidding for the
political representative in power and their loyal unscrupulous bureaucrats. Under
such circumstances, execution becomes the casualty and citizens at large
suffer.
More often than not in such states,
public schemes have been executed on paper with limited objections being raised
by the professionally upright. The public auditors and officers are therefore
content with continuity of their job than doing justice to the mandate of their
institutions.
The former CAG has established a
gold standards for officers in the manner audits were performed of the 2G
spectrum allocation, coal block allocation, gas exploration, and Air India
during the Congress led UPA governments.
As the senior most functionary of the supreme audit institution, Mr. Rai
withstood tremendous pressure, from cabinet ministers of erstwhile government,
trial in the media and industry associations, to hold the government
accountable.
Transparency and accountability are
two critical pillars on which democratic Institutions stand to deliver public
services. Mr. Rai did an exceptional task of reinforcing these pillars. The CAG
officers known to very few conduct audits of International Atomic Energy Agency
and World Intellectual Property Office, and United Nation Institutions.
It is widely recognised by
International and multilateral funding institutions that corruption causes a
tremendous drag on the economy growth and public investments. While it may
benefit a few pockets and often cited for as a bedrock for the political survival,
it does very little to further the public cause and nation building.
The former CAG’s courageous actions
have proven that the public exchequer tremendously benefitted from the performance
and compliance audits. When we look back in history, the CAG will be remembered
for restoring trust in the civil services and public institutions. The global
economy currently stands at a critical juncture, India is being viewed
internationally as a beacon of hope and stable growth due strong fundamentals.
The robust re-auctioning of the
resources has perhaps marked the beginning of end of the ‘Resource Raj’ with a
number of transparency reform measures introduced by the central government. The
demand for scrupulous scrutiny of public stakeholder action will increase with
time.
Transparent accountability in the
long run, supports the economy and public institutions leading to better
quality of citizen life. This understanding must percolate through the state
governments, district administrations to the panchayati raj institutions.
We must evolve to higher standards
of leadership and governance, only then we could imagine a nation that will
deliver public services to the weakest in society and be truly inclusive. In
building the nation, we need to recognise and deeply imbibe the lessons from
the conduct of the former CAG.
We need our administrative training
and capacity building institutions to instill professional ethics in trainees and
reinforce them in commissioned officers at all levels. We need to collectively strengthen
the faith in probity of public services and meritocracy in society.
