There cannot be any punishment , unless crime gets proven
Recent example :
CBI could not “ prove through irrefutable evidence “ that A Raja
and Kanimozi had committed any crime
And to be able to prosecute suspected
criminals, you need evidence from every possible source
That is why
the following announcement by Shri Parrikar [ CM – Goa ] assumes significance :
Goa govt launches criminal tracking system
Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar today launched Crime and Criminal Tracking and Networking System (CCTNS) in the state which
will provide the police an access to the national database of history-sheeters.
The initiative, a part of Union Home Ministry's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), was launched in presence of senior police officials on the occasion of Goa Liberation Day.
If the Government is serious about “ bringing
to books “ , perpetrators of Corruption
( White Collar Crime
? ) , then Shri Rajnath Singhji might want to take a look at my following
blog / email :
Thursday, 3 April 2014
E - Governance ?
Can e-Governance
help eliminate corruption ?
Most certainly
Look at the following , partial list of Central and State
Agencies set up to fight fraud , money-laundering , corruption , tax-evasion ,
economic crimes etc :
> Public Accounts Committee
( PAC )
> Central Vigilance Commission
( CVC )
> Central Information
Commission ( CIC )
> Research and
Analysis Wing
( RAW )
> Serious Fraud Investigation
Office ( SFIO )
> Information
Bureau
( IB )
> Economic Offence
Wing
( EOW )
> Central Bureau of
Investigation ( CBI )
> Department of
Revenue Intelligence ( DIR )
> Comptroller
and Auditor General ( CAG )
> Anti Corruption Bureaus ( States )....
( ACB )
> Enforcement
Directorate
( ED )
> Lok Ayukts (
States )
> Lok
Pal ( Central
)
Despite such an army of
Agencies , how do corrupt manage to get away ?
Or , in case caught
, manage to delay delivery of punishment for years ?
No doubt , there
must be several reasons , including , inter - agency rivalry to get credit -
something difficult to eliminate altogether
But , I believe ,
the most important reason is :
Lack of a COMMON /
COMPUTERIZED database of all offences / cases / persons being investigated
And , which is readily "
Accessible " to all of these Agencies , all over the country ( 24 * 365 )
Already , every Agency compiles huge dossiers on " Suspects
" in its own
" Departmental
Database " , which is never shared with other Agencies ,
leading to ,
> Huge amount of duplication of efforts /
information
> Fractured / scattered profiles of "
Suspects "
>
Enormous waste of time / resources
What will help ?
> Dismantling of individual
departmental databases
> Merging of all Agency-wise databases into a SINGLE / UNIQUE database
> All Agencies
to enter their findings
/ data / info into this COMMON
database , with nothing preserved on local
computers
> All data-entry FORMS to be ONLINE . No paper forms at all
> All local
computers connected to
ultra-secure Network ( Encrypted )
> " Access
Rights " to individuals , based on Biometric Identification
23 Dec 2017
www.hemenparekh.in
/ blogs
I was involved in some of the eGovernance projects in the year 2004-07 and 2010-2012 in Government of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab & Andhra Pradesh. I was closely associated with Lokayukta and CBI prosecution departments in Bangalore. What i could learn is there is a serious lack of legal personnel who can understand the various realms of corruption.
ReplyDeleteIssue: Corruption essentially involves commercial transactions., whereas PC Act (Prevention of Corruption Act) in general focuses mainly on bribe, forgery, benami transaction & fraud. These are usually restricts within departmental contracts. When Corruption evolves to version 2.0 it doesn't ware a typical contractor or political broker dress, it looks glamorous & elegant. Here corruption works on creating all records perfectly well adhering to all auditing standards.
Our Investigating officers, prosecutors nor the learned judges are so commercially savvy enough to understand where the corruption commenced, since everything appears perfect with all auditing compliance.
The only way to mitigate this mess is to plug the hole when it is found. I mean when the IO (Investigating Officer) takes the case, he/she should be qualified enough to understand the underlying business, the competitive risks, business opportunities, commercial advantages of the alleged corruption apart from the normal fraud, benami transactions, documentary proofs and witnesses. The Anti-Corruption Offier and the prosecution should understand that the business can be corrupt, with clean audited documents from the department. The courts repeatedly acquit such cases, since none of the anti-corrupt departments have evolved to understand this.
Most of the time it is wrongly understood that there should be amendments in the PC Act, Competition Authority Clause, Commercial Transactional laws. No, the issue is with in the initial filing of case, since the investigating officer doesn't know nor equipped to understand the complexities of today's global businesses and transactions. Education on global commerce, training with reputed international auditing consultants, understanding accounting forensics are essential for these personnel. We have never dedicated ourselves to train our officers in these fields, but we expect them to perform excellently well in decoding these complexities.