In a day of dramatic developments, the Vigilance department with the assistance of Vasco, Mormugao and Verna police swooped down on the Mormugao BDO office, the Chicalim, Sancoale and Majorda-Utorda-Calata village panchayat offices in connection with the forgery allegedly committed by Mormugao BDO Mohini Halarnkar. She is accused of attaching a forged memorandum copy attributed to the Attorney General and directed the three panchayats to pay Rs 25000 each, to her office. The raids were followed by quizzing of the staff members of Mormugao Block Development Office and staff of the three panchayats, two of which — Chicalim and Sancoale had paid up the sum to the BDO’s office.
The event have many implications for local government and administration in general. To underline a few, the case reiterates that corruption is not limited to the male gender alone. Even if there are others behind the case, it implies that the woman BDO was ready to take the risk and allowed herself to be manipulated even as she was a responsible officer heading a block. The case reiterates that corruption is all pervasive from Centre, to State and village levels, even as the stakes are very low, at the local level. The case indicates that other civil servants, serving in middle and lower positions by and large, lack the administrative and legal knowledge to understand and resist illegal orders, understand jurisdictions of various offices and officers above them, and ultimately combat corruption.
In the case at hand, the BDO was able to push through a letter disguised as coming from the Advocate General, whose jurisdiction and powers, that he cannot requisition money, was not known to the BDO’s office and panchayat staff. The case assumes significance since two out of three panchayats deposited the money as directed fraudulently, without seeking a second administrative or legal opinion. The third panchayat was saved by default. The case may have been the same with many government departments as well, where employees are unable to verify the authenticity of fraudulent directives or documents. The situation shows how easily, those who may not wish to be willing collaborators in corruption, too can get sucked into the quagmire for lack of knowledge and training.
The subordinate staff have obliged the BDO who is the supervisory cadre over the village panchayats without cross examining the veracity of their superior’s intentions or documents attached. The corruption came to light almost by accident not due to administrative checks and balances mechanisms. Halankar, committed a vital mistake in allegedly tearing the two pages from the Chicalim village panchayat minute book, which was discovered when the panchayat members came to ratify the minutes. The minutes were a proof that it was the Mormugao BDO’s office that had sent the memorandum to cough up Rs 25000 to its office, and in trying to destroy this evidence, the BDO gave away the plot, perhaps out of panic.
This and other instances of corruption and impersonation suggest that Goa should have a full fledged training institute where there is mandated pre-service, in-service and senior level rigorous administrative and legal training. A majority of government staff habitually copy file notings from older files, ask advice from the previous dealing hand for notings and show total incompetency in examining and analyzing issues and putting their frank opinion on the file.
Often, the notings of the dealing hand –generally a clerk, are merely commented upon and not changed even by higher officers. If the file noting is negative from the start, due to bias or ignorance, the proposal is doomed. The Goa Institute of Rural Development and Administration lacks the senior faculty and professional courses that would empower the civil servants with administrative and legal knowledge. It is true that knowledge alone will not prevent fraud and corruption, but will empower those who do not wish to be unknowing collaborators.
Additionally, a strong punitive system and exemplary punishment for financial fraud has to be envisaged within the government framework. The civil service rules give enough leverage to senior civil servants conducting inquiries to give very personalized decision in such cases. This has created a culture of sycophancy which allows the blue eyed employees to get away with corruption, moonlighting and sometimes innocent staff get penalized, when they refuse to tow the line of the senior officers or their coteries.
