Even as the Prime Minister pitched for insulating genuine decisions from criminal investigations, CBI Director Ranjit Sinha on Monday said while quick decisions are needed for fast economic growth, it should be done in a manner there is no scope for impropriety.
In his speech at the international conference organised by CBI on its Golden Jubilee celebrations, Mr. Sinha said allocation and acquisition of natural resources is a “particularly contentious issue” in current Indian and global context.
“While there is a need for fast economic growth necessitating need for quick decisions on exploitation of natural resources the challenge for policy makers is to do it in a manner that there is no scope for impropriety,” he said.
CBI is probing a number of cases related to allocation of natural resources like spectrum, coal and natural gas.
The issue was also raised by Law Minister Kapil Sibal in his keynote address where he said in framing policies for exploitation of natural resources, the government has to strike a fine balance between private and public good which is easier said than done for emerging economies.
“There may therefore be some scope for judgmental discretion and scope for malpractices in the implementation of policies. Anti-Corruption agencies thus need to build better understanding of the nuances of policy implementation and decision making,” he said.
Mr. Sinha said in global world new forms of crime and corruption are emerging at a rising rate and existing crimes are acquiring greater complexity.
The agency chief said corporates operating across sovereign jurisdictions are the drivers of economic growth in the world and fixing of criminal liability of corporations in corruption matters is an increasingly complex challenge for investigators.
“Violation of intellectual property rights is a subject of growing relevance for corporates, governments and other stakeholders,” he said.
The CBI Director, who spokes before the Prime Minister, expressed concerns about growing ability of suspects to quickly transfer ill gotten wealth across national boundaries terming it as a major handicap in the anti—corruption investigations.
“While there is unanimous agreement amongst all law enforcement agencies on the necessity of tracking down the proceeds of crime across borders, the outcomes are far from satisfactory,” he said.
Giving details of future roadmap for the agency, Sinha said agreement is underway with the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurological Sciences, Bangalore for interactive partnership in forensic psychiatry and development of scientific interrogation techniques.
“The CBI is also in advanced stages of finalising an institutional partnership with the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, to modernise our existing management architecture and processes...the National Forensics Institute at The Hague in the Netherlands for lending greater scientific support to the investigations.
“A partnership with The Australian Federal Police is also proposed for seamlessly sharing best practices,” he said.
Speaking at the conference, Minister of State for Personnel V Narayanasamy said Indian economy today is far too integrated with the world, be it in terms of investment, trade and commerce or other forms of economic cooperation.
“Thus, tackling corruption and providing uniform level playing field too have acquired international ramifications. There is an urgent need to understand various aspects of corruption and various ways that it can occur in a global arena,” he said.
