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Background Papers Annual Conference of Chief Secretaries 4 - 5 February, 2011 Background Papers Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Government of India New Delhi Table of Contents Sl.No. Subject Page No. 1. Transparency and Ethics in Governance Towards an Ethics Infrastructure 1 – 9 Points for Discussion 13 – 18 Anti Corruption Strategies 21 – 32 2. Flagship Programmes - Areas of Concern Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY) 35 – 41 Renewable Energy Development in India 45 – 50 Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) 53 – 60 Accelerated Irrigation Benefits Programme (AIBP) 63 – 95 National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP) 99 – 125 Areas of Concern from Planning Commission's Perspective 129 – 134 Areas of Concern from Comptroller & Auditor General of 137 – 143 India's Perspective 3. Key Issues in Internal Security 147 – 158 4. Introduction to RFD Initiative Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System 161 – 175 Results Framework Document for Department of 179 – 196 School Education & Literacy 5. Science and Technology: Follow up of decisions taken at 199 – 202 the First Annual Chief Secretaries Conference Transparency and Ethics in Governance Towards an Ethics Infrastructure Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances Government of India In public administration, transparency refers to unfettered access by the public to timely and reliable information on decisions and performance of governmental institutions. Accountability refers to the obligation on the part of public servants to report on the usage of public resources and answerability for failing to meet the stated performance objectives. Integrity refers to honesty or trustworthiness in the discharge of official duties, serving as an antithesis to corruption or abuse of office. For the last three decades or so, the values of transparency, accountability and integrity have been the dominant paradigm in public administration. Sound public administration involves public trust. Citizens expect public servants to serve public interest with fairness and to manage public resources properly on a daily basis. Fair and reliable public services and predictable decision-making inspire public trust, translate into improved lives for the poor and vulnerable, and also, create a level playing for the private sector, thus contributing to well-functioning markets and economic growth. Transparency, accountability and integrity of public administration are pre-requisite to, and underpin, public trust as a keystone of good governance. What do these concepts mean in the abstract and concretely? At the abstract level, these concepts are co-dependent. Integrity, by requiring that public interest be paramount, provides the basis for transparency and accountability. Transparency without accountability becomes meaningless and makes a mockery of sound public administration. Accountability depends on transparency or having the necessary information. And transparency and accountability without integrity may not lead to promoting public interest. Concretely, these concepts can be translated into what is called an ethics infrastructure of mutually reinforcing legislative standards, institutional structures and administrative procedures, which ensures that public servants will put the interest of the public above their own. It means a set of rules, institutions and practices that are in place to guide, manage, and enforce good conduct. It is composed of mutually reinforcing functions and elements to achieve the necessary coherence and synergy to support an environment in order to encourage high standards of behaviour. An ethics infrastructure consisting of transparency, accountability and integrity as a keystone of good governance provides the context for subsequent discussion in this paper. Transparency In essence, transparency is about opening up government's records to public scrutiny, and arming citizens with a vital tool to tell them about what the government does and how effectively. Transparency in government organisations makes them function more objectively thereby enhancing predictability of decision-making and ruling out arbitrary decisions. Transparency enables citizens to participate in the governance process effectively. In that sense, transparency becomes the key to strengthening participatory democracy and ushering in people-centred governance. It empowers the poor and vulnerable to get information about public policies and actions and leads to their welfare. The governments in India have, in the Annual Conference of Chief Secretaries-Background Papers 1 last decade or so, embarked on several initiatives such as e-Governance, the Right to Information Act, and Social Audit, to promote transparency in administration. e-Governance The Government of India and several State Governments have taken up various e-Governance initiatives in delivery of public services, which have been successful in promoting transparency. The importance of e-Governance lies in its potential to provide information and services any time anywhere while minimising corruption. However, the potential of e-Governance as a tool to promote transparency can be realised in full only if certain conditions are satisfied. At present, most of these e-Governance projects are rather limited in their outreach; they need to be scaled up and replicated. Penetration is the key; that is why the government departments and local self-governance bodies need to get computerised so that there are services at the back end for the front-end common service centres to deliver. More importantly, e-Governance should be capable of enabling seamless access to services and information; so, the emphasis needs to be on functionality both at the back end and the front end. Right to Information Act, 2005 The Right to Information Act 2005 sets out a practical regime for citizens to secure access to information on all matters of governance. It is a path breaking legislation empowering people and promoting transparency. It enables citizens to seek information from a public authority, thus making the government and its functionaries more accountable and responsible. The Act also checks corruption by strengthening public vigilance. Use of the Act by citizens in inspections, social audits, citizens' report cards and other watchdog initiatives strengthens public vigilance, which essentially builds a direct relationship between the citizens and the government. The Act thus constructively expands the meaning of 'accountability'. Proactive disclosure of information by government departments, which greatly helps in the facilitation of a people-friendly information access regime, is a key provision of the Act. This recognises that some information is so useful and important to the community that it should be given out regularly, without anyone specifically asking for it. This ensures that citizens always have access to authentic and relevant information. Proactively disclosed information minimises time, money and effort required by the public to access important but routine information. It helps people to understand better what information they can access and how to seek it. Moreover, it reduces the number of requests that civil servants at the level of the public authorities will be required to process, thereby reducing the administrative burden on the government. It is a matter of pride that we have given ourselves a tool, which has the potential of promoting transparency, strengthening accountability and reducing corruption. It is also commendable that the basic tenets of the Act have been implemented and the institutional mechanism is in place and is in use by citizens. The institution of Information Commission has assumed a pivotal position. Civil society organisations have been, and continue to be, active in ensuring the implementation of the Act in letter and spirit. Various State Governments have taken up initiatives, which go beyond the stipulations of the Act. The Act has now been in 2 Annual Conference of Chief Secretaries-Background Papers operation for over five years and has benefited many, including the poor and the underprivileged. Civil society organizations and the media have used the Act liberally for bringing in transparency and objectivity. It has been accepted that the Act has adequate 'teeth' to bring in transparency. At the same time, it is also accepted that the Act has not yet reached the stage of implementation, which was envisioned. There are several reasons for this. One of the basic responsibilities of the public authorities is to disseminate information on suo moto basis. A recent study (2009) commissioned by the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India, found that, while various departments and ministries of Government of India had posted the required information, the status of the same in the State Government departments is significantly poor. At places where suo moto information is being provided, the quality of disclosure is low and does not cater to the information needs of the citizens. Moreover, the information disclosed proactively is not updated regularly leading to obsolescence of the information provided. Attention needs to be given to these aspects because proactive disclosure of information is the hallmark of the Act and is one of the major challenges of the right to information. Ineffective record management systems and tardy collection of information from the field offices have resulted in delay in processing
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