As India celebrated the 63rd year of its Independence, freedom from venality, malfeasance and unabashed bribery from top to bottom in public offices remains a distant dream. Conspicuous corruption is so ubiquitous that it seems impossible to root out the menace of impropriety.
The perseverant moth has been consuming the core fabric of the country for six decades now. Its grotesque face was flaunted once again by the recent exposure of corruption in the Commonwealth Games to be held in Delhi next month.
In its campaign to expose corruption in the system, Bureaucracy Today followed up a matter which appeared in the media sometime ago only to be buried quietly and quickly. Various Government departments are doing little about a letter to the PMO highlighting corruption by the Indian Ambassador to the United States, Meera Shankar, on May 12, 2009. The report highlights numerous instances of millions of dollars paid as bribes to Government officials in departments ranging from the Customs, Excise and Sales Tax to the Indian Navy by a number of American companies. The PMO confirmed long ago the receipt of the Ambassador’s letter.
The Government’s official stand is that an inquiry is underway, after the BJP demanded a probe, and investigations are on by the respective Government departments.
The Ambassador’s letter
Indian Ambassador to the US Meera Shankar’s letter mentions contrived bribes being paid by US companies to bureaucrats and officials in the Indian Navy, the Maharashtra State Electricity Board, the Indian Railways, the Indian Central Insecticides Board and other unnamed senior officials to secure government contracts. The basis for the complaint was a US Government report on the prosecutions carried out under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The FCPA is a federal law that prohibits US companies from paying foreign government officials to gain business advantages. It covers non-monetary gifts or offers in addition to cash payments.
Now, the Indian Ambassador’s mail to the PMO said it all. But what is damning is that though the offenders were booked under the Law in the US, little has been done in India to bring the culprits to book.
