We need more officers made of the same moral fabric as the former CAG of India!

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.