“The officials selected for Commission work apart from being with integrity and ability, must be clever and should have some experience in accountancy, investigation, administration and with some knowledge of the law, too. They should be persons who could not be easily induced to submission with offer of bribes, death threats, ransom claims, etc. In this regard mature men could be less susceptible to inducements of whatever kind.”________________________________
by E. M. G. Edirisinghe
(April 08, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is like air. Seems to be everywhere. Blowing from one end to the other, touching many on its path, heavily or softly; remotely or closely. Like liquor it has become the scourge of the country enveloping every spectrum of the society.
As bribery and corruption is beneficial to the giver as well as the taker, its eradication is not that easy as it is spoken. But it rots the society causing moral and spiritual deterioration among the people. When the winners are in their hundreds the losers are in their millions. While it stinks and befouls the entire social system, justice and fair-play is dislodged to lodge itself in seclusion; the civil society is weakened further. When one plays foul he should be suspended or banned from play. If a peaceful environment and an equal opportunity is to be created where every player and spectator is prepared to accept the outcome of the game of civil life.
Bribes
A bribe is always offered to stop a correct act being committed or to induce a corrupt act to be committed. On. the other hand, a bribe is demanded either to do a legitimate act or not to do a legitimate act. One who suffers most in this corrupt social set up is the one who cannot afford to give a bribe or one who is in high moral quality who will not stoop down or compromise to give a bribe. However, there could be instances of one refusing to accept a bribe being threatened with death sometimes, or being subjected to wild insinuations and allegations.
It is man’s excessive greed that makes one either to offer a bribe or accept a bribe. The more we crave the more we are aggrieved and troubled. Besides one being religiously advised to restrain one’s over-greediness,there are man made anti-corruption laws to control bribery and corruption in man’s mad rush to riches. It is for this purpose that the Bribery and Corruption Act of 1994 had been passed into law of the country. While obedience to religious laws is voluntary, that to the statutory laws is compulsory because the latter draws prosecution this birth itself.
In the first instance, howevermuch forceful the law is, its effectiveness and inner-strength could be guaged only by the officials and men in charge-of implementation of the provisions.
No law comes into effect on its own except the law of Kamma. It has to be enforced. If the enforcement authority is lethargic, inefficient or corrupt,the law however strict and complete is of not any effect. So the law and its spirit gets battered from either side. Ironically there may be instances of the legislators themselves intervening to nullify the effect of the law which they have passed with the best of intentions. Anti-bribery and corruption law is not an exception. The actual strength of the law lies not in the words in the statute but in the moral strength of those who give effect to it. They include the officials, lawyers, politicians and the judges. Thus the sincerity of the legal, political and administrative machinery is vital to the life of any anti-corruption law.
Phrasal strengthening of the law alone is insufficient if there are lawyers and many others to find or create cracks in the law and elsewhere to get away from the long arm of the law. Then the statute will be dead as a dodo. Miscreants and the foul-players neither honour nor fear the law.
The officials selected for Commission work apart from being with integrity and ability, must be clever and should have some experience in accountancy, investigation, administration and with some knowledge of the law, too. They should be persons who could not be easily induced to submission with offer of bribes, death threats, ransom claims, etc. In this regard mature men could be less susceptible to inducements of whatever kind. However, the state has to draw personnel from the very society which considers ability to buy one’s way through to the top is an asset admired by many.
Media role
A media which opens itself to expose corruption should be encouraged. It is one way to guarantee transparency in tackling corruption, particularly at higher level. Without freedom to expose corruption, if it exists, at the top as practiced in such countries as India, the United States, Indonesia; Japan, Phillipines an anti-corruption atmosphere in general cannot be established within the country. Corruption in certain institutions is considered as within its normal legal procedure.
The time when cash is accepted at home, shop or office is no more now. The strategies have shifted to buying properties or foreign trips, or depositing cash in bank, etc. So corruption takes different shades and shapes according to the necessity.
In the meantime the offenders enjoy the advantage of remaining hidden and exalted and pass off their worldly possessionsas legitimate earnings. However, at lower level where a few hundred or thousands of rupees are passed on the money so earned goes mostly for drinking, gambling, or smoking. Hardly anybody will accept a bribe to buy medicine for a sick child or to buy school books or for a similar gracious act.
On receipt of reliable information, if a prima facie case could be established after a preliminary investigation, the person suspected of bribery or corruption should be suspended from work or transferred to another unit. His continuing presence in the same office could be an obstacle to a proper investigation. Always two officers must be assigned to work on each single case with another officer with managerial powers of supervision. It is always preferable that the Commission should employ men either on contract or on transfer basis, remov-able or transferable on short notice if found wanting in intergrity, efficiency on dedication.
Every offender whether a criminal, bribe-taker or a gambler is a most frightened man they tremble at seeing the police, men of status, or getting media publicity. They will do anything please or silence evidence against them fearing capture and prosecution which will destroy their ‘gentleman’ image they have been building with the money so earned. Wide publicity should be given to tax defaulters who have been fined under section 124(1) of the Inland Revenue Act. Undisclosed income of most of the defaulters are from sources tainted with corruption.
Annual declaration of assets should be subjected to detailed scrutiny from time to time. It is also a good move to get all the business transactions amounting to over a stipulated sum to be paid only by cheques. This could lead to avoid black money being legitimised on the sly with the least discomfort. To himself A special court to hear only the bribery and corruption cases should be set up early. Commission of a crime is one thing and proof of it is another. But, failure to prove it should not be made a licence for one to commit more crimes by making them to emerge unscathe from the courts. At least additional taxes should be collected from their earnings from corrupt and befouled sources.
- Sri Lanka Guardian
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