Accountability And Control

Answer : The twentieth century belonged to the Industrial Revolution, in the same manner, the twenty-first century is going to belong to the Information Revolution. The Right to Information to citizens is a great step in making above statement more encompassing and meaningful.

In all free societies, the veil of secrecy that has traditionally shrouded activities of governments is being progressively lifted and this has had as salutary effect on the functioning of governments. In most democratic countries, the right of people to know is now a well-established right created under law. It is right that has evolved with the maturing of the democratic form of governance. Democracy is no longer perceived as a form of government where the participation of people is restricted merely to periodical exercise of the right of franchise, with the citizens retiring into passivity between elections. It is now a more positive and dynamic content with people having a say in how and by what rules they would be governed.

The Right to Information is an obligation on the part of public authorities to disclose all the
information, documents, evidences, notes to the common public in order to bring administration closer to the common people.

During last some decades, all the administrative structures used to revolve around bureaucratic set up. The bureaucracy, in order to maintain its denudating position, used to keep informations under pillow i.e. secret. This deliberate tendency of secrecy made administrative system farther to public and a sense of alienation developed between the administration and the public.

The bureaucracy used this for serving own purposes. The closed model systems of organisations,with little movement of information outwards, became a nursing ground for evils e.g. corruption, red-tapism, self-aggrandizement for bureaucracy and so on. This opaqueness did much harm to the public welfare.

But the Right to Information hits at the very core of this problem by making outflow of information from organisation to public easier and smoother. This brings about transparency in the administration thereby reduces the chances of corruption and red-tapism. This also helps in bringing administration closer to the citizenry.

Similarly, the excessive obsession with information on the part of bureaucracy, with little information available outside, made the organisation unaccountable and irresponsible for the actions and decisions they take. This made them at dominating stage with all their actions go uncontrolled and unchallenged. This was one of the worst forms of bureaucratic superiority when they enjoyed supreme authority over public.

The Right to Information (RTI) has the right potential to hit at the core of problem that plague the bureaucracy led societies e.g. all the developing countries in the world. The RTI brings about a sense of togetherness with the administration in the mind of people. This helps in the marriage of administration with the common public.

The most potent solution is that it brings a healthy change in the mind of people about the bureaucracy and vice-versa. The bureaucrats, hitherto enjoying considerable power and influence, that too unchecked and unresponsive, now tend to become accountable for all their deeds and actions. This helps in realisation that they are working for people and by using the Public Money only. This greatly helps them to open the erstwhile closed administrative mechanism for public and there by making it more open and transparent.

On the front of Accountability, the realisation on the part of employers that they are working for the betterment of people, makes them more result oriented. This attitudinal change itself help in making them responsive towards the needs of society and grievances thereof.

This become essential component in the process of making bureaucrats more accountable. This is, in fact, a healthy beginning for any society towards making them more service oriented. This is essentially a prerequisite for making them accountable and responsible.

The main drawback of this practice is that the welfare of public got totally sidelined and bureaucracy acted as an allien for the people.

But with the Right to Information in hand, the people can ask for the information, which are being kept secret on one pretext or other. They can ask for the amount they pay as taxes, what is being done with tax-payer’s money, what are budgetary programmes for the welfare of the people and what disciplinary actions are being taken against the erring officials. This certainly helps in keeping bureaucracy accountable to public and it helps in promotion of harmony between the organisation and the citizens.

Therefore, the Right to Information is like sword in the hands of the people, which can be used both for good and bad purposes. This right has the required potential to promote empowerment of society, at large, and simultaneously reducing the evils of society as well as organisation. But utmost precaution must be exercised in its use. This Act must be used only for good purposes which may bring fruits for society. The scrupulous means must be avoided in all possible manner.

Answer : Civil society is defined variously by different theorists, but a minimal definition would include the idea of a non-state autonomous sphere; empowerment of citizens; trust building associational life; interaction with rather than subordination to the state. Hence civil society represents the realm of an organised social life that is voluntary, self-generating, largely self-supporting, and bound by a legal or set of shared values.

A civil society is a non-state institution which covers a large space of society in an organised way. It covers the groups which are intermediate between the state (political society) and the family (natural society). Though it is autonomous, is subject to the authority of state. The civil society is a society made up of subjects which are politically conscious and know their economic, social and political rights. These societies in this way prepare a corpus of those well knowledge persons who can help the state in development programmes by participating in them and also by giving back feed backs. In this way these society facilitates the people’s participation in administration which is basic in a democracy.

The main attribute of a civil society is voluntarism and not coercion. It advocates pluralism and reduces the over dominance of state which is particularly great for a country like India where such a huge diversification is found in every society.

The civil society helps in maintaining community moral system. That’s why it has been said that democracy, particularly healthy liberal democracy requires a public that is organized for democracy, socialized to its norms and values, and committed not to its myriad narrow interests but to a larger, common, civic ends. Such a civil public is only possible with a vibrant civil society.

The civil society comprises of many social groups like NGOs, community base organisations, trade unions, farmer’s organisations, cooperative, religious groups, youth groups and women groups etc. All these all civil society groups affects not only the policy formulation but also its effective implementation as their participation is basic to any administrative activity.

The civil society influences the policy making right from its formulation stage. Civil society acts in a way that results in collective bargaining type of move which puts pressure on the government to address their grievances. The civil society helps the government to identify target groups for various development works, they also help in decision making which is the most vital process in policy making. As the civil society is more near to the common men and they have far larger penetration in remote as well as other areas, they know all the problems relating to social, economical or political fields. They provide essential inputs to the government which can base their policy on these inputs.

The government requires people’s participation for their policy implementation. The civil society groups provide the government that very channel. These groups gives vital information to the government for effective implementation which not only increases efficiency but also effectiveness. The government need not spend huge resources for implementation as it can be done at a minimal cost by using these civil society groups. As these groups are more flexible and effective than the government’s bureaucracy the result is also great.

The public opinion is something that any government would like to know, as it not only provides the
essential information about any government policy but also tells about the problem and reason of failure of that particular policy. So this feedback mechanic proves to be the most important information generation for any government.

As the efforts by the civil society are more economical than any government organization they can motivate more and people to participate in the state’s work of policy formulation as well as implementation together with governmental agencies. This will definitely enhance the efficiency, effectiveness and productivity of Indian administration system.

Type of Regulation

The regulatory framework relating to financial services can be broadly classified into three main types. One set of regulations determine the type of activities that different forms of institution are permitted to engage in. These regulations can be called as structural regulations.

There are regulations that cover the internal management of financial institutions and other financial service organisations in relation to capital adequacy, liquidity and solvency.

There are a number of investor protection regulations. All regulatory agencies in the financial sector claim the primary objective of the agency is to protect the interest of investors.

It is generally perceived that investors are the weakest participants in the financial markets and hence need protection from malpractice, fraud and collapse.

The regulation can also be classified on the basis of their scope. There are regulation which deal with the macro aspect of the system; for example, legislation enacted in the Parliament like Banking Regulation Act, Securities Contracts Regulation Act, etc. deal with the macro aspect of the respective institutions.

Answer : In all free societies, the veil of secrecy that has traditionally shrouded activities of governments is being progressively lifted and this has had as salutary effect on the functioning of governments. In most democratic countries, the right of people to know is now a well-established right created under law. It is right that has evolved with the maturing of the democratic form of governance. Democracy is no longer perceived as a form of government where the participation of people is restricted merely to periodical exercise of the right of franchise, with the citizens retiring into passivity between elections. It is now a more positive and dynamic content with people having a say in how and by that rules they would be governed.

Right to Information has some legal implication also like the courts have in a series judgments, declared that the right to know is a facet of the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined in Article 19(1) of the constitution – a landmark judgment on the subject being the judgement of the Supreme Court.

Modern democracy embraces a wider and more direct concept of accountability—a concept that goes beyond the traditionally well-established principle of accountability of the executive to the legislature in a parliamentary democracy.

Increasingly the trend is towards accountability in terms of standard of performance and service delivery of public agencies to the citizen groups they are required to serve. Such accountability is possible only when public have access to information relating to the functioning of these, agencies. Finally, transparency and openness in functioning have a cleansing effect on the operations of public agencies.

Any how, the Act will not be fully effective unless the government takes steps to build capacity in its system to cope with the expected demand for information. There will have to be substantial upgradation of the management of information in the government and other organization covered by the Act.

The full potential of the freedom of Information Act would not be realized unless a culture of openness and transparency pervades the government and its agencies.

Right to information is not as deeply rooted in developing countries as it has been in developed countries. USA has granted the right to information to its citizens by the Freedom of Information Act (1966). Several other democratic states have also granted such a right to their citizen through similar legislation. If properly established with proper zeal it can be helpful in developing country also.

Answer : Citizens charter is actually a tool for upgrading or streaming the public services by making public serice providers more accountable and responsive to their users. It is the result of a search for administrative accountability in a democratic system. The concept of citizen charter was introduced by John Major of UK in 1991.

Basically, the citizen charter seeks to spell out in great detail, the services of what quality and at what time government and services organizations will provide. It is aimed at demanding from the government and the service organizations the fundamentals of accountability, transparency, quality and choice of services supplied to people. In India it was initiated by Common Cause a N. G. O in 1995.

Though charter, of course is an innovative idea but its implementation is an uphill task. There has to be somebody or authority to monitor the performance and watch violations and maintenance. The citizens have to play an active role in giving timely and necessary feedback about services rendered by the government agencies.

The public service providers, within the organization must be mentally and infrastructurally will prepared enough to serve the public according to laid up instructions.

In the time to come, it has to be seen that charter works properly, and does not remain a mere ritual. There must be wide publicity of citizens charter, to increase the awareness among the people. There must be simplified procedures for receipt of complaints and their quick redressal. Simultaneously, there must be provision of a performance scrutiny with citizens involvements and action should be taken on the basis of citizens perceptions about performance.

Answer : The term ‘civil society’ has come to enjoy much political administrative and intellectual currency in recent years. The civil society organizations play an important role in the welfare and development administration.

Coming to the role to be played by civil society organizations in good governance, it could be said that the most important role played by these organization is to create political awareness among the people at the local level. In doing so they should be guided by 3 principles: (a) charitable (b) development (c) participative. To achieve this they have to fulfill some requisites; viz., (i) they themselves should be people’s organizations; (ii) they should help in the development of the grassroot organization to become self-reliant, through local leadership; (iii) they should not attempt to operate projects directly; (iv) they should be able to create motivation and opportunities for self employment among the people (v) they should thoroughly study national development policies and try to promote them among the people. (vi) they should be recognised by the government as an essential source of socio-economic development, and (vii) there should be complete co-ordination among the NGOs to avoid duplication and wastage.

The creative engagement of the civil society will be crucial in developing and implementing an effective model of humane governance. In a democracy the state has an obligation to enunciate a framework and protect a body of laws that enhance equal citizenship. A strong civil society (example USA) testifies to the fulfillment of this obligation. And, conversely, a weak civil society (example India) points to the need to pressure the state to honour its most fundamental obligation.

Answer : The Estimates Committee and the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) both provide the parliament an opportunity to control the executive. These both committee are the tools in the hand of parliament in financial matters. Both the committees are made up of the members of parliament.

The Public Account Committee (PAC) works in a different way then the estimates committee. They both have their unique way of working. The PAC set up first in India in 1921 under the provision of Government of India Act 1919 and has since been in existence. It consists of members from all parties and with 15 members from Lok Sabha and 7 members from Rajya Sabha. The chairman of committee is from the opposition party.

The function of committee is to examine the annual audit reports of Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) which are laid before the parliament by the president. In this function the committee is assisted by CAG. The CAG submits three audit reports to the president namely, audit report on appropriation accounts, audit reports on finance accounts and audit report on public undertakings. Out of these the first two are examined by PAC. The committee examines public expenditure not only from the legaland formal point of view to discover technical irregularities but also from the point of view of economy, prudence, wisdom and propriety to bring out case of waste, loss, corruption, extravagance, inefficiency and nugatory expenses. It examines the accounts of autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies, the audit of which is conducted by the CAG.

On the role played by the committee it is claimed that the traditions established and conventions developed by the PAC conforms to the highest traditions of a parliamentary democracy.

The Estimate Committee uses a different method of control as it does not have the expertise of CAG and it does not examine its reports. The estimate committee’s chairman comes from ruling party unlike PAC. The function of the committee is to examine the estimates included in the budget and suggest economies in public expenditure. Hence it has been described as a ‘continuous economy committee’.

The basic functions of committee are, to report what economies, improvements in organization, efficiency and administrative reforms consistent with the policy underlying the estimates, may be affected; to suggest alternative policies in order to bring about efficiency and economy in administration; to examine whether the money is well laid out within the limits of the policy implied in the estimates; to suggest the form in which the estimates shall be presented to the parliament etc.

Although there are a different methods in the functioning of the estimates committee and PAC, but the aim is same in both the cases i.e. to control and check that the tax payer’s money is utilized in a prudent, efficient and honest way. The fund spending should be legally and morally up to the expectations. Because in any democracy the responsible spending of public funds is imperative for its healthy functioning.

Answer : Administrative Law, shows a whole body of law relating to public administration. It is the law of official powers and responsibility or the law which determines the amount of discretion permitted to administrative officers and agencies.

The clear picture of Administrative Law as we observed can be seen in “France” polity, where there is a definite regulating material in terms of administrative point of view. But in India and England the concept of Rule of Law, and equal status before law indicate the equality of all civilians before law. But in these countries there are many laws which are related to the administrative body exclusively like issues of Public Servant, Court Marshal etc. governing the affairs of them. These laws although very systematic in dealing with power, and responsibility, complains, and public relation but a century of litigation and adjudication could not completely vanished the problems related to public administration. It is true that “law developed certainly in situation of public affairs as continued. It is like a living organism but the problem, and affairs which were matter of past todays it remains. Many simmering issues today also teasing the law makers. Like Administrative Obligation, Responsibility, Check over Corruption, control over political pressure, illegal actions and transfer, criminalisation in administrative affairs and so on always produce problems before the law makers of administrative law. So, what would be the authority limitation, how could a smooth relation could develop between public to administrator. Weather force or morality is responsible to maintaining the society is another questions which may provide the philosophical bases for law making process.