Andhra Pradesh's ‘steel frame' rattles with indignation as the CBI goes after top bureaucrats in scam cases.
Where does the buck stop in government, at the desk of a minister or that of the bureaucrat who signs the files? This question has stirred a passionate debate in Andhra Pradesh, where the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested two bureaucrats and questioned many more in connection with a slew of corruption scams.
For the State's IAS officers, the question is a no-brainer: the political executive must take responsibility for all policy decisions. It already claims credit for the good decisions, so why not the bad ones, they are asking. They are peeved that the CBI does not quite see it the same way, and that rather than holding political leaders accountable for all scams, it has been hounding the bureaucrats.
The discontent in the elite service has been brewing ever since the CBI arrested and sent to jail two of their colleagues, Y. Srilakshmi and B.P. Acharya, both Principal Secretaries, and summoned several other senior bureaucrats, including an ex-Chief Secretary, for questioning.
Ms Srilakshmi was accused of granting an out-of-turn iron ore mining licence to the Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC), owned by former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy; Mr. Acharya stands charged with allowing the Dubai-based Emaar Properties to “cheat” its joint venture partner, the State-run A.P. Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC), of which the accused bureaucrat was then the vice-chairman and managing director.
Also under the CBI scanner is another high-profile case, against Kadapa MP Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy for accumulating disproportionate assets when his father, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy (YSR), was Chief Minister.
The YSR link
The common denominator in all these cases, according to the CBI, is the short-changing of the State exchequer and the pocketing of tens of crores. And while the dramatis personae are different in every case, another common thread running through them is that YSR was at the helm when each of those questionable decisions was taken. A powerful leader who had his way with Congress party leaders and bureaucrats, YSR is not in a position to reveal who influenced these decisions.
As IAS officers were virtually made to queue up outside the CBI's office to testify on this crucial question, over 70 officers went in a delegation to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy to protest the CBI's kid-gloved treatment of politicians connected with the OMC and Emaar cases.
A three-hour charged meeting of the IAS Officers' Association followed, where members protested the CBI's conduct.
While the association, quoting the code of conduct and business rules, holds the minister concerned ultimately responsible for everything that happens in his department, not all members of the “steel frame” approve of such “trade unionism.” They are of the view that those party to dishonest decisions, whether netas or babus, must be brought to book, especially as within the IAS fraternity, it is an open secret that there are officers whose conduct is not above board.
Contrasting stands
The association draws a parallel with the resignation of Lal Bahadur Shastri as Railway Minister owning responsibility for a train accident in Tamil Nadu (then Madras State). If this was an example of high moral rectitude, the case of Botcha Satyanarayana, now Pradesh Congress president, was the other end of the spectrum. The only punishment he suffered after the discovery that money was withdrawn from an escrow account by a bogus company called Vashishta Wahan — created as a special purpose vehicle to attract German auto major Volkswagen — was to be shunted out from the portfolio of Industries. YSR was Chief Minister then. In 2010, the CBI gave him a clean chit.
K. Madhava Rao, a former Chief Secretary, says if a minister takes the stand before the CBI that he or she did not know the contents of a file forwarded by the secretary, it amounts to failure on the part of the minister. He goes to the extent of arguing that by the principle of collective responsibility, it was a failure of the entire Cabinet — failure to abide by the oath taken at the swearing-in ceremony.
The allusion is to A.P. Home Minister P. Sabitha Indra Reddy, who was earlier Minister for Mines. She said she was given to understand by Ms Srilakshmi, then Secretary, Mines Department, that OMC had sought a licence for “captive mining” of iron ore exclusively for a proposed steel plant in Kadapa district. But, unknown to her, she claims, the words “captive mining” were removed from the Government Order.
IAS officers point out that in the telecom scam rocking the country it was former Telecom Minister A. Raja who was called to stand scrutiny. “Why is no politician in A.P. being called to account?” they ask.
Fallout
Politicians, on the other hand, argue that bureaucrats must not get blanket immunity, especially when the country is facing monumental corruption. “No country provides the kind of protection the IAS officers enjoy in India under Article 311 of the Constitution (safeguards against dismissal and reduction of rank),” says Jayaprakash Narayan, a former IAS officer who founded the Lok Satta Party.
The babu vs. neta battle has already drastically slowed down administrative decision-making in Andhra Pradesh as officers have stopped using their discretion in signing files. The ramifications of the cases against Emaar and Jagan go beyond India's shores to Dubai and Mauritius. The burden is now on the CBI to demonstrate that it is conducting a fair investigation.
nagesh@thehindu.co.in
Keywords: Andhra Pradesh corruption scam, IAS officers-ministers spat, CBI probe, Andhra IAS officers, Nation in a State
Valid point raised by the IAS officers. It is the netas who sign off all executive action. Theirs is the last word. If they are so naive that they cannot understand such massive corruption right under their very noses, why are they occupying those positions of authority? Shouldn't they resign?
The fact that the minister is basically responsible may be acceptable. But when anything appears to be irregular or illegal, why that fact is not clearly written in the file by the Bureaucrats ? Because either he/she has a share in the booty or is afraid of a transfer or such dislocation. So if the officers are HONEST, frauds and corruption can be controlled to a large extent. Whatever it be, none is accountable. Only stray cases come up because of Audit findings or investigations like Raja or Kalmadi. But the ultimate result will be known after the present generation only. Now some ministers left the ministry in Karnataka as they were caught watching porn in Assebly premises. The Party HQrs say that they had watched only and nothing is done. The ministers say that they will come out clean. So who is guilty and who deserve punishment in Bharat ! God save the country
Investment-cum-entrepreneurship is the sole purpose one enters the political arena. Yes it is pure business. The amount of money each MP and MLA spends to get elected, and the staggering amount their parties spends altogether will only reveal that it is an investment and nothing else. Now ROI (return of investment) is what these investors look into. Every day, every hour these investors are after generating turnover and ultimately profit. These investors will only opt for a team, I mean a sales team that supports this venture wholeheartedly and the ones that prevent will be a cast away. There are vested interest parties both in politics and in the bureaucratic worlds; we see them both opt favoritism, cronyism, and nepotism!
I think politicians too must be held responsible for the decisions of an IAS officer!! As we all know the final document is always signed by the minister!! Why not he should tag along with the IAS officer!! Because he could have stopped it but he didn't, The minister's commission was fixed in this dealing! Plus most of times politicians use the political power to influence the final decision!! So the minister should be held more accountable as compare to the babus!
now that they face the heat, they are complaining. how about when we go to the police to file an FIR they ask for money?? when we go to the land reg they ask for money?? all this is for politicians?? cmon guys.. face it. atleast now the IAS should stand up against the politician who act as if the IAS is their ancestral property.. u guys are undoubtedly the top brains in this country... consider how tough it is to pass IAS, and u do all this kind of nonsense..
The officers now have a Chidambaram, precedent. They can say and the CBI has to
accept that their acts also are inadvertent errors like the HM. CBI works under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Representative of IAS Officers Association made an important comment that CBI is acting on a remote control from the Centre. The investigation of CBI on pick and choose basis is noticed by every right thinking person.The main architect of the Emmar Properties scam as everybody knows, is the then CM Chandrababu naidu.He genorously sold away 500 acres of prime property at Rs 28 lacs per acre; where as he sold his own family property at the same area, at Rs 1 crore per acre. The prime accused Koneru Prasad was picked up by Naidu himself.But the CBI has not so far picked Naidu for investigation. Why this Kolavery de.The Cabinet sub-committee members of DR.YSR Govt.viz Rosaiah, Botsa, Sabita Indra Reddy, etc, who have probed the then Chandrababu scam Emmar Properties, and made certain recommendations in the matter were not picked-up for investigation. CBI investigation appears to be Jagan centric.
It is a war against corruption. In long brutal war, captain cannot be caught right away and but only surround them and give enough pressure to surrender. Until now,Public outcries on corruption was never heard because bureaucrat and politicians were together. Politicians think it is their birth right and bureaucrat bud in for pressure. Now the bureaucrats are pressured to question the politicians. IAS officers has to now learn to outsmart the politicinas. Hope this momentum stays in every govt officials to bring down corruption.
The subject needs national debate. It is true that politicians are left free in most scams or policy faults while civil servants are held squarely responsible. Politicians can enjoy more freedom when not holding any public position but there should be a code of conduct to be followed once they get into government system. Perhaps politicians doing government jobs are tempted to do corruption as they feel that there is no rule to catch them on the luxuries enjoyed by them on government expenses and for ill deeds. Unfortunately the number of sincere and dedicated politicians is decreasing day by day. The punishment awarded to politicians while holding public positions should be much more severe than that of the public and severe servants.
well! the whole issue is created by the wealth factor that drives you to many horizons.As an individual everyone wants to make money and does certainly want to be affluent.Making money becomes a lot easier when u have power and in case babus and netas they have collective power.But the fact is netas come and go definitely not the other way around makes babus more susceptible when his deeds come into limelight or under investigation.For netas it comes but they know how to play the corruption game by hook or crooks.As it is evident all over india how the politicians have multiplied their wealth over the years.
According to me corruption is collective effort where the planner gets the maximum portion of money and rest is distributed for the efforts put by their subordinates.There are number of IAS officers who tried to do their duty with honest but to surprise they were also shown the way to corruption.Both netas and babus should be scrutinize for their act and shud be treatd as same.
It is very important note that transparency in the system will bring a proper solution to this problem. Adminitrative reform can only solve this problem, the bureaucratic and political responsibility should clearly defined in the system.The electronic system is very useful now a days in detecting this kind of anomaly.
Wonderful article.. This article actually what I have been thinking all
these days about Ms. Srilakshmi.. Untill everything is going well,
politicians say that its their own decision and thought... But when
something goes wrong... the officer is being held responsible... I
strongly support Hindu for this article.. Very good article... But does
the CBI read this article and will it bring out the rats out of hole??
Yes. It is understandable, it is ministers under whom the files got approved should take moral responsibility and IAS officers merely drafts policies.Now, why to sulk we have better judiciary system and courts why not follow them than queuing up outside chief minister's office. JP is right.
This is not something new, but it is definitely interesting. The contest between Politicians and bureaucrats happens everyday but it is unseen to the common man who has no access or idea to the echoleons of the government. But it is interesting in the case of AP as the ministers have successfully managed to dodge the bullet and pull their officers in between. The same can be seen in the case of the 2G scam, no bail has been granted to the secretaries arrested but bail was granted to some ministers and industry persons involved. This surely calls for a debate as to who is ultimately accountable, is it the minister? who lays the foundation or is it the bureaucrat? who builds on it.
The writer is wrong and has no clarity on what he is writing. The issue here is not about Policy, its about criminal offence committed. The criminal offence so committed has be proven in Court of Law!!! Now IAS Officers Sign the document, therefore it is always easy to prove against him. The Law doesn't accept the that the violation has happened because on orders of higher authorities (for his conviction). It never accepted for Police, Army who were charged for Human rights
violations, for Nazis Officers after WW2, for any official. The duty of a Officer is to uphold the Rule of Law. IAS Officer has a duty and right to deny any document in violation to the Law of the Land. If the Minister is also involved that have prove that in a court. To prove a minister's involvement is very difficult, because he doesn't take all administrative decisions (he wont write or sign). The IAS officers should come out and give all evidence of wrong doing by Ministers in Court, hoping that the sentence will decrease. When IAS has no duty to uphold the Rule of Law, whats the point in them in having so much
powers and staying there.
The point raised by th civil service needs to be noted carefully. The
short point they argue is ministerial accountability. it appears
little has been done in this behalf and the politicaianes who took
decisions have been ;let off lightly. This is unjust. Even the media
while reporting the arrewsts of these officers did not do an alyatical
rweport -they enver questioned all this. it is only now the civil
service associations have raised this point. Will the state governmetn
do the needful? If we let things off like thios, we will be positiely
harming the administrative fibre, the civil service will lose its
morale. .
Great Op-ed article. The soul searching that is happening among the AP IAS officer is timely. For too long, the responsibility of public service seems to have been forgotten by many officers. The public perception is that IAS officers make it easy for ministers to monetize their position. And that the officers who do not cooperate are mercilessly sidelined. This entire mode of work not only hurts the state but also the morale of officers who have been honest in their advice and dealings. However this discussion can be a trigger for positive change and reform. The current tendency of agents of government is to defend secrecy and hide behind procedure. Reform can move towards transparency in all actions. If the officers who are under a cloud today had instituted and followed procedures that clearly documented their decision making process, the CBI or any other body could not and can not make them scapegoats for orders from a supervising minister.
Yes. There may be a justitification in this demand. But, why are IAS Officers not being honest? EWhy do they toe the line of the incoorigible politicians? No one compelled them to become IAS Officers. Having become one, what is preventing them from standing up? They have acted hand in glove with politicians. Thy are accomplices to the frauds of the netas. Hence, why should they say that they should be held responsible only when the primary culprit is also brought to book?
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