Allegations of corruption

It is made abundantly clear in a news report that the role of the parliamentary standing committees on the ministries in combating corruption and other anomalies has not been particularly effective, thanks to investigations being stalled for some unknown reasons. The speaker has said that it would be very unfortunate if investigation committees develop the trend of submitting no report on alleged corruption by ministers and high officials. He is right, but there is more to it than bemoaning.

The whole thing has to be viewed in the light of the need for good, responsible governance. The failure to push the investigation process to its logical conclusion has cost the nation dearly in terms of transparency and accountability.

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The point was made amply clear by Professor Muzaffar Ahmed of the Transparency International, Bangladesh, when he observed that the ineffectual parliament was responsible to a great extent for the inept handling of corruption charges against ministers. Obviously, the opposition MPs would have raised questions regarding the non-functioning of investigation committees if they were present in the House. He has very rightly pointed out that the process of accountability was being impeded due to the poor or non-performance of the investigation committees, and so was the institutionalisation of democracy in the country. We cannot agree more. The parliament is supposed to be the nucleus around which the issues of good governance revolve and get addressed. When it fails to function smoothly, the task of fighting corruption will be difficult to perform.

It has been reported that over the last two years countless complaints of corruption and irregularities against the ministers and high officials have been received by the parliamentary standing committees and investigation committees were also formed to respond to the situation. But the committees now exist only in name. The government needs to try and create conditions where investigation into corruption charges against high-ups can proceed unhindered.