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Babus admit to corruption within ranks


Does political corruption in India take place because there are always some civil servants who are willing to collaborate in it? Or, is the lure of post-retirement assignments a major reason for spinelessness of the senior civil servants?

The affirmative answer to these questions has come from none other than bureaucrats themselves. Recently, they made these facts and many others -- usually, a subject of whisper in corridors of power -- known in as many words while participating in a first ever government-sponsored `perception' survey of civil servants.

Of the 4,808 officers (from IAS, IFS, IPS, IRS and six other top central services), an overwhelming 80% of them agreed that the "political corruption takes place because there are always some civil servants willing to collaborate in it". Since their identities were kept confidential, the respondents were candid about a number of issues.

The survey report says: "A majority of respondent felt that corrupt officers get away without being punished. It was also felt that corrupt officers are able to get the most sought after postings. Harassment of honest officials through baseless complaints and investigations also turns out to be major issue in several services."

The survey -- conducted referring to 11 major thematic areas ranging from work environment, transfers, postings, integrity to harassment and discrimination -- has found that many of the notions of bureaucrats about the civil services shattered, forcing almost an one-third of them to think about resigning from their respective services at some point of time.in their.

Pointing out to a trend where some of the successful candidates even prefer to join Indian Revenue Service (IRS) without, perhaps, understanding their job profiles, the report says: "A few officers have also expressed the view that probationers leaving other central services and joining revenue services or preferring revenue services over even the coveted IAS clearly betrays their intentions".

The survey -- carried out by the Centre for Good Governance, Hyderabad, incomjunction with ACNielsen ORG-MARG at the behest of ministry of personnel -- has come out with some interesting findings about the revenue services.

It has found that in case of services dealing with revenue collection, it is reportedly a common practice to "derail an honest assessing officer by making anonymous complaint against him".

While commenting on the plight of honest officers, few respondents said that enquiry on baseless allegations itself is a punishment; it does not matter if he or she is exonerated in the end.

"It has been pointed out that lure of post retirement assignments is a major reason for spinelessness of the senior civil servants," says the report.

Political interference in civil services has been widely cited as a major reason for the poor performance of the services. Though the survey did not cover this issue explicitly, influence of political considerations in various aspects of administration was brought out through the comments offered by a number of civil servants across the services.

Incidentally, a majority of such comments came from respondents belonging to the IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service (IFoS).

"While respondents from the IPS expressed concern over political interference in investigations, respondents from the IFoS cited instances of being pressured by local polticians to do things not conducive to the scientific management of forests", it says.

The findings have come out with a different facet of discrimination within the bureaucracy as well. Officers remarked that discrimination is rampant based on caste, religion, region and service. Some women officers stated that there definitely is a `glass ceiling' and female officers are denied good service postings.

"Women officers are posted in development sector and not given postings in departments that deal with infrastructure, power or other such sectors," it claims.

The issue of perceived disparity between officers belonging to the IAS and other services is considered as a major cause for inter-service rivalry and demoralisation of non-IAS officers. "Most non-IAS respondents consider it unfair to perpetuate the entry-level advantage of IAS officers for the entire duration of the service spanning two to three decades," the report adds.

Most non-IAS respondents resented the hegemony of the IAS in all the senior positions in government, which gave them the authority to undertake cadre management and planning of all services.