Political corruption then breeds corruption in all corners of public and private life, because the predominance of corrupt politicians affects the distribution of all government expenditure. Bureaucracy, being the instrument of policy execution, becomes susceptible to those who benefit from certain policy choices. The private sector, in the form of profit-maximizing businesses, then is excused from unsound or uncompetitive practices by procuring legal protection and public expenditures from bureaucrats willing to accept a kickback. The money gained on both sides of this exchange is used to finance the campaigns of the politicians who ensure that such corruption is allowed to continue. Thus, any broad strategy for tackling the problem must focus primarily on breaking the very foundations of this cycle.

Unfortunately, the CVC's direct jurisdiction is restricted to the governmental bureaucracy. Bureaucratic corruption is able to persist because of a scarcity of goods and services, red tape and administrative delay, and a lack of transparency. The continuation of such corruption comes from the cushion of legal safety, which contends that every person is innocent until proven guilty, and a basic notion of tribalism in which corrupt individuals keep each other in power to further their own interests.

Fighting Back

The CVC is following a three-pronged strategy to tackle bureaucratic corruption. First is the simplification of rules and procedures so that the scope of corruption is reduced. The CVC has the power to govern over the vigilance administrations of the central government's various ministries, over corporations established by or under any central act, over government companies, and over societies or local authorities owned or controlled by the central government. This position of superintendence empowers the CVC to give directives on policy matters and procedures. The CVC therefore focuses on procedures that are likely to lead to corruption and then tries to modify them. One example is the corruption in government procurement procedures: in November 1998, the CVC ordered that once tenders have been opened, there must be no post-tender negotiations except with the lowest bidder. This reform has created a lot of transparency, placing a check on corruption in government purchase operations.

Another significant source of corruption comes from the fact that computerization is not fully advanced in the Indian banking sector. The lack of computerization leads to a time delay before accounts are reconciled, which provides significant opportunities for fraud. In order to help verify whether fraud has occurred, part of the procurement-procedures directive required banks to computerize at least 70 percent of their business by January 1, 2001; out of 27 banks, 12 achieved the target in time, while the remaining are moving closer to that objective. Although the CVC's jurisdiction is restricted only to checking frauds and corruption and not improving the quality of service, the extensive use of information technology in the banking sector has ensured that the quality of service will improve. This is particularly so for the Indian banking sector, which is going to face competition following India's commitments in the World Trade Organization.

The Power of the Web

The second element of the CVC's strategy is to bring greater transparency to the entire political system. The center of this initiative has come from the CVC's public face on the Internet (http://cvc.nic.in). Perhaps for the first time in the world, a government agency has published, on the Internet, the names of officers charged with corruption. Officers who were facing departmental inquiries and who have been proven guilty after due inquiry under the Prevention of Corruption Act have been cited on the web site. Each case is available for all Indian citizens (and anyone else in the world) to see. This action by the CVC was motivated by a desire to display the process of justice against allegedly corrupt public servants. The official web site has done much to combat the general public perception that only middle-level or junior officials have been held accountable in the legal system; despite the lack of media coverage, action is taken against senior bureaucrats as well, which should give greater confidence to the Indian public. In a poll conducted by the Hindustan Times, 93 percent of the people responded positively to the information distributed by the web site.

Some of the people whose names appeared on the web site occupied sensitive public positions. In principle, if an official is facing a vigilance inquiry, he should not be placed in sensitive posts; of course, in practice, this is not followed. The continued presence of indicted officials in our public system is an important reason why corruption flourishes, and this fact was highlighted immediately by the web site. In the past, closed departmental operations helped people facing vigilance inquiries retain the position they had abused for personal gain. By publishing the names of the charged officers on the web site, we hoped to introduce an element of transparency into this faulty process. And soon after we posted the names, questions were raised in the public at large about people facing inquiries while still occupying sensitive positions.

As can be expected, the CVC met much resistance in its bold move to publicize the names of the accused. In fact, one newspaper went to the extent of saying that the CVC has started an "Icondemnyou.com" web site. Yet all that the CVC had done was publicize the departmental inquiries already taking place, a practice as old as the Indian Penal Code in criminal cases--but the CVC was doing so with the extraordinary speed of the Internet. In criminal cases, when a person is accused, he is legally innocent until proven guilty, but as far as court proceedings are concerned, the name of the accused is in the public domain. Even in a serious criminal offense like murder or theft, the accused does not protest that his reputation has been damaged; yet the moment CVC published on the web site the names of officers who were facing prosecution cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act, many protested that the CVC was condemning innocent public servants!

While under the law no defamation has been caused by publicizing the names of the charged officers, the CVC web site was generally perceived as a rogues' gallery, which it is not. Despite the fact that Indian society has become very insensitive and cynical with respect to the issue of corruption, the website publication seems to have stirred the public conscience. Some people theorize that the fear of having one's name published on the web site affects the behavior of potentially corrupt public officials. A poll taken by The Economic Times showed that 83 percent of the respondents believe that the publication of the names of the charged officers on the CVC web site can have a deterrent effect.