Asks biz houses to fight for anti-corruption

BANGALORE: He may have flouted land norms but former Lokayukta N Venkatachala, in a holier-than-thou garb, expressed disappointment at India’s inability to bring businesses under the ambit of anti-corruption laws. He was speaking at a workshop on anti-corruption “A paradigm for a smooth global economic partnership” organised by the Bangalore Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday. In his opinion, corruption and terrorism are the two most troublesome challenges in the world today. “The world needs to focus on corruption more because it is anti-national, anti-progressive and anti-poor,” Venkatachala added. Quoting data from a study done by Transparency International on “Perceived Corruption Index”, he said that out of 178 countries that were studied, only Denmark, New Zealand and Singapore have an index of less than 7 per cent. He added that while corruption among the public officials in the United Kingdom and United States of America is around 25 per cent, India has a perceived corruption index of 67 per cent. Venkatachala said that while the Constitution offers enough protection to public officials, businesses have also made no attempt to fight graft. “If businesses do not bribe public officials, I feel that corruption can be reduced to the bare minimum.” Applauding the Santhanam Committee’s efforts in recommending the introduction of a Central Vigilance Commission, he said that the act that prevails today is the Prevention of Corruption Act, amended in 1988. “Right to Information, in my opinion, happened by chance. Public officials were not aware that even the notes prepared by them will become available for scrutiny by the public,” he said. He opined that while businesses are governed under anti-corruption laws in the US and an UN Convention Against Corruption that attempts to bring about a sense of discipline among businesses, India lags behind in checking the corporate sector for corruption.