In every employment, there are systems and processes to periodically asses the worth of an employee to the organisation. Some do it overtly, and many covertly. The government lack any such system and the consequence is overall inefficiency of government in India in addition to the rampant corruption.
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India is the supreme audit institution of India, established under Article 148 of the Constitution of India. They are empowered to audit all receipts and expenditure of the Government of India and the State Governments, including those of autonomous bodies and corporations substantially financed by the government.
Article 148 of the Constitution is adequate enough to check any misuse or abuse of funds if the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, is honest and impartial and has a deep sense of allegiance to the Constitution and duty to the Nation. What is required is that the government should be compelled by law, to act on such findings of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India and the erring officials, are made to face the consequences of their improper handling of financial resources, which unfortunately is not happening in India, as the Government often indulges in some cover up or justifications exercises, often protecting the guilty.
The greater concern for the PEOPLE OF INDIA is of course, the purpose and the outcome of electing as their representative. In what way such an elected representative fulfil or fails to fulfil his mandate to the people who elected him. (the constituency)? There seems to be no system, no yardstick or method to assess the worth of an elected representatives by the people who elected such representatives.
Democracy can survive and flourish only if the elected representatives are made answerable and accountable to the constituency which elected them, because he is their representative.
In the existing system, once elected they only owe allegiance to the political party or the coalition, he/she is just happy towing the line of the government, even those governmental actions which are counter to the interest of the very people who elected them. They indulge not only in supporting and praising the authorities in power for their own survival, often, in the hope of a better position in the governmental hierarchy.
A system which does not insist on accountability and answerability of the elected representative to his constituency, continually breeds conflict between government and the people
An effective system of audit of elected representatives will substantially increase citizens’ ability to hold them accountable while reducing the risk of public corruption.
The audit of their activity must be done with integrity and produce reliable results:
An audit process of this nature will instil ethics and integrity among the elected representatives which will certainly result in good governance and create a system of accountability and probity in carrying out their responsibilities.
Such an audit would defer from mere financial audit in the sense, that there has to be appropriate criteria to assess an elected representative’s utility to the constituency and the State/Nation.
It is in reality a performance audit by an independent assessment of an entity’s operations. The goal is to evaluate the performance of and effectiveness of the elected representatives every year and not once in five years.
In order to create credibility of such audit activity, the audit should take into consideration, the promises made by the candidate through the manifesto, vis-a-vis, the ground realities and necessarily the views and concerns of the people of the constituency.
A larger canvass of audit will need a comparative between the benefits/advantages the constituency received because of a particular elected representatives with suitable negative markings for the advantages the elected representative has received, especially in terms of enhancement of his financial resources, acquiring of immovable and movable properties and of course the enrichment of his near and dear ones for which he or his position has been the reason. In evaluating an elected representatives’ actions/initiatives it is pertinent to consider who benefits the most? At times, policies are initiated or actions are taken apparently to benefit the people but the real beneficiaries are cleverly camouflaged, like what is happening in Goa, whether it’s the 3 linear projects or the doubling of the railway lines, and now the smart city project, whatever, a deeper analysis will reveal the real beneficiaries are not revealed.
Recently, the clamour to set up a private medical College in Goa,? Who really benefits in the long run by such private ventures in Education and health has been proven in India, beyond any doubt. What with exorbitant tuition fees and very high treatment costs, these are mere white elephants for the common man to look at and for the elected representatives to beat their chest in self-praise and flattery. Even the initiatives by some elected representatives to provide jobs or infiltrate certain government departments with persons from their constituency merely to gain political clout is primarily unethical and counter to quality in government service.
Of course, creating livelihood opportunities for people in the constituencies either as self-employment or setting up of suitable industrial/agricultural productions etc are creditable. Such positive and credible initiatives is totally lacking in most of the elected representatives.
In retrospect, what had happened to Goa during the past half century, there is no doubt, that the focus and primary concerns of the elected representatives have been themselves and not the people in their constituency or the State’s wellbeing. Six decades after liberation is more than sufficient time for the elected representatives to now turn their focus on THE PEOPLE and take tangible steps to ensure people’s wellbeing and endeavour to fulfil the aspiration and dreams of the people in the respective constituency. The elected representatives need to remember that, they have been elected to secure the interests of the people, and not act as mere, ‘YES MEN’ to orders from party bosses.
(The writer is a Professor of Law & an education consultant)
