Corruption and its menace

My ideas on current corruption and its impact

Once a storehouse of traditions, customs, wealth & renowned in the world as a ‘Golden Sparrow’, we now tops the list of countries with most living poor people, poor health facilities, poor governance abilities and poor…what not due to the highly dangerous Frankenstein monster - Corruption.

Though country competes in certain sectors with rest of the world, but it is notorious known as No.1 rank country among ‘highly corrupted countries’, ‘country with huge amount of black money’, ‘country where 45% had firsthand experience of paying bribes to get services done in government offices’.

Corruption, an irremovable cancer in any country, got its roots deep spread in social, economic, political spheres of individual and society life. Corruption not only spoils the individual morale but also invariably endangers the morals of the whole country. It is so widespread in the government offices that people gladly give and take bribe as an accepted custom with pride and consider it as their right for their extra effort.

The present day government offices with lack of transparency left no other choice for the common man except to either pay for the service or simply ignore it. A government employee/governance ‘should and must’ provide services to people in a cost effective, timely manner without expecting anything as they are run with the public money. 

To eliminate this Frankenstein monster, a major revamp is necessary. Stringent transparency working methods, use of technology to its full extent should be implemented. A sense of fear/responsibility about his/her delivery of services should be cultivated among government employees. There is no harm in creating such an environment for the benefit of public. Many private corporate's implemented this and achieved results and brought excellence in their services.

It’s moral and basic right for every individual to obtain services from government in a timely manner cost effective manner. Authority/power, independence should be given to employees at certain levels without depending on their higher officials to get the things done. This eliminates delay.

The employee salaries in all the departments should be in par with the market conditions so that their financial and social status gets improved which naturally kills the desire to earn more from bribes. Government should provide free/cost effective health, education and other basic facilities to almost all the employees who can’t offer this from their salary, so that the money they earn will satisfy their needs rather than going for bribery.

Political leaders who are the most influential persons in this present day society should stand as an example to common man. Politicians should stand as united and work for service than work to earn. If they show that their interest is to work and not to earn then automatically their actions will have profound impact. Every politician, every government employee should submit his income details every year to the government and these should be transparent.

Financially sound, wealthy politicians and employees should take minimal salary and reduce the burden on the government. Those from wealthy families should cut their expenditure and salary, develop hark work culture, show accountability and all politicians should stick to plan “Earn only if we work, else no work, no pay”. 

Students are given marks/ranks only if they perform well likewise a government employee/politician should be paid only if he delivers well in good working environment.  Government should provide its maximum strength to its employees to utilize their energy and efforts. 

Actions like Whistle blowers, RTI and Citizen Charters should be brought in to enforce punishments and a sense of fear for those who are infected with this corruption cancer.

Loss caused to the government due to corruption must be recovered from all accused. The role of Media, Social Networks and Educated youth needs to be strengthened. They should create awareness among public, question the irregularities in the government services.

Certain new departments and agencies to deal with corruption should be introduced which provides employment opportunities and also helps in eliminating corruption. Feedback mechanism should be introduced at all levels in the government offices so that if bribes are asked or if services are not delivered well those can be complained directly. 

The recruitment pattern to government jobs needs to be changed. Apart from testing the candidate’s potentials, behavioral tests should be introduced at entry and at later stage in employee career, so that only candidate’s with honest, punctual behavior will enter and remain in the government service. These tests will certainly impact others and helps them to rectify their attitude in all stages of their careers.

Those who are corrupted should be punished at all levels and the loss should be recovered from them. There should be feedback mechanisms from the public about government services. This environment will change the attitude of other government employees and leads to CORRUPTION FREE SERVICES IN ANY COUNTRY.