THE High Court in a welcome move on July 2 asked the government to immediately enforce the rule that requires public servants to declare their and their dependents’ assets before joining the service. Hearing a writ petition that sought a court directive on rampant allegations of corruption against public servants, the court observes that corruption and money laundering were main obstacles to development and democratic governance and asked the Cabinet Division, the Anti-Corruption Commission, the National Board of Revenue and the Bangladesh Bank, among others, to reply, explaining why their continued failure to enforce the Government Servants (Conduct) Rules 1979 should not be illegal. The High Court directive is commendable given the inaction and leniency that the government has exercised in dealing with corrupt government officials. The Awami League lawmaker for the Narail 1 constituency said in the parliament on June 26 that corruption had been institutionalised, noting that people involved in procurement and project implementation had committed corruption and made a fortune. Yet, the government has rarely taken any action on its own. The action against a former inspector general of police or a former revenue board official, for an example, came following media reports.
For more than two decades, laws and regulations meant to curb corruption by government employees have been relaxed, creating scope for officials to indulge in irregularities with impunity. In 2002, Section 13 of the Government Servants (Discipline and Appeal) Rules was amended to change the time frame of mandatory submission of wealth statements every year for every five years. In 2018, the authorities in another amendment included ‘reprimand’ as a penalty for corruption that has been proved. Before this amendment, the punishment was either ‘compulsory retirement’, ‘removal from service’, or ‘dismissal from service’. In India, having an increase in assets of a retired public servant more than 10 per cent than what they had at the time of joining is deemed a punishable offence. The government has recently considered a proposal to further relax the rule, suggesting that such information should be collected from employee’s annual tax returns. Many term the proposal a removal of an additional layer of scrutiny that could create scope for dishonest officials to engage in illicit activities with little fear of being detected. Such concessions add to the culture of impunity that government officials enjoy.
The government must, therefore, comply with the High Court directive within the stipulated time and ensure that all government employees submit their wealth statements keeping to the rules. The government must revisit the past amendments to the public services rules to ensure transparency, accountability and fairness in public services and remove all problematic clauses that encourage corruption and malfeasance.
