Moreover, while honesty and corruption are practices preached and followed by governments, it is the bureaucracy which executes both honest and corrupt deeds, according to the policy guidelines by the elected class. The Chief Ministers zero tolerance to corruption theme has been sullied to a large extent because of his inability or unwillingness to comprehend the rot in the bureaucracy, forced upon it by the diktats of the Congress band of Ministers. And when push comes to shove, the officer becomes the villain. An interesting case in point is that of PT Parker, Executive Engineer of Division XXV, of the PWD who was suspended for issuing road contracts without following CVC guidelines and tender rules. While Parker in his submission made allegations against his boss Churchill Alemao, the then minister maintained that his job was only policy. Execution was his bureaucrats’ responsibility. So what happened to Parker? Well he escaped with very little hurt. He was voluntarily retired with full pension and other benefits. And his boss is unharmed as well.
Chief Minister Parrikar went a step further. He said in this assembly session that if he ever decided to take action against errant officials of the Town and Country Planning department, not a single town planner would remain in the department. He then went on to say the say the same about mining officials.
While each of these observations have a ring of truth in them, as harsh as they may sound, can it be justified that the bureaucracy is the fountainhead of corruption? They are just tributaries or even rivers, but if officers are rivers, the source is the politician. At the same time, it is also evident that there are more honest bureaucrats in the system than honest politicians in terms of percentage, many of whom work for over three decades in anonymity and with honesty. Therefore when a politician makes a sweeping remark tainting all bureaucrats with the same brush, it is grossly unfair to the steel frame of democracy which even now has more strength than the fragile moral and ethical standards of our politicians.
And that is why, it is so important for the Chief Minister to be seen a supporting honest officers, policemen and heads of government institutions. In the case of the removal Dean of the Goa Dental College Dr Ida de Noronha de Ataide, he has not done so. Dr Ataide comes from a family with impeccable credentials, hugely admired and respected for the person and the professional she is and credited with trying to streamline the functioning of the Dental College, and above all a no nonsense disciplinarian. Herald has found evidence of her transparent approach and her resistance to efforts of errant suppliers of medical equipment to have free run of the college, with the blessings of the Health Minister. Her removal followed a month long to and fro exercise of one particular supplier of dental chairs trying to get the college to sign an Annual Maintenance Contract for dental chairs for Rs 23 lakhs, though this exercise, is officially not linked to her removal. Your newspaper has in two reports on Tuesday and today, placed the plain facts for you to judge. But what is non-debatable is that the morale of senior doctors in the dental college has been severely eroded, when an honest Dean is shown the door.
What is also a matter of concern is that the government has refused to discuss the issue in the assembly. A calling attention motion moved by Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai was disallowed. Nor did the Chief Minister speak on this during demands on the Health department, nor during a discussion on illegal dental clinics in the coastal belt.
The strength of the bureaucracy is proportional to the moral strength of its ruling class. No battle against corruption can ever be successful, if the honest are not given their pride of place.
