The Hindu : Front Page : Manmohan renews call for code of conduct

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 28, 2004

Front Page

Manmohan renews call for code of conduct

By Vinay Kumar

NEW DELHI, AUG. 27. The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, today stressed the need to evolve a code of conduct by consensus for all political parties, a code of ethics for all individuals in public life, and a code of best practices for the government at all levels. Inaugurating a two-day biennial conference of State anti-corruption bureaus and the Central Bureau of Investigation here, Dr. Singh said the administrative systems and procedures should be more rational and transparent. He warned top police officials against adopting investigative procedures that killed managerial initiative and stunted individual enterprise and risk-taking.

"Management is an art, not a science. It requires individual initiative, creativity and willingness to take risks in the larger interests of the enterprise. I am all for rules and regulations and procedures that punish the wrongdoers, but in doing so we should not hold back the truly enterprising people with initiative and dynamism and enthusiasm," he said.

In his half-an-hour address, Dr. Singh referred to his Independence Day speech and his brief intervention in Parliament on Thursday last, indicating that key issues of good governance, dynamic economy and a compassionate polity were a source of great concern to him.

The Government could not depend purely on individual ethics and morality or public opinion to deal with the malaise of corruption.

"It must design institutional checks, create incentive and disincentive structures and put in place reward and punishment systems," he said.

Following the liberalisation of economy, Dr. Singh said, there had been a spurt in economic offences such as financial frauds, bank and stockmarket scams, money-laundering and cyber crimes. "A strong link has developed between economic offences and the anti-social and terrorist organisations. The criminal today can hide from law anywhere in the world," he said.

The aim of economic reforms was to make the government less intrusive and discretionary and more transparent. "Many of these reforms had an added beneficial effect of ending the hypocrisy that had come to characterise some of our industrial policies, where we said one thing on paper and allowed another in reality. Rational policies, transparent procedures, simple rules do have the positive externality of reducing the scope for corruption," he said.

Dr. Singh's prescription for the anti-corruption agencies such as the CBI was that in judging individual cases, one must not forget that in public life "one is dealing with a world of great uncertainty." "Honest mistakes" could be made, he said adding that every effort should be made to distinguish between "honest mistakes" and "wilful defiance" of the rule of law.

Pending cases

In his welcome address, the CBI Director, U.S. Mishra, expressed concern over the drawbacks in the criminal justice system and the piling up of cases in courts. "We can think of increasing the number of special courts trying Prevention of Corruption Act cases," he said.

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