PLAYING ON THE WRONG SIDE

Delay and inefficiency in the completion of the Projects

Joginder Singh, IPS (Retd.)
Former Director, CBI

The government has invested Rs. 4,27,102 crore in the past three years in public sector units (PSUs), according to the official data. The government spending on PSUs was Rs. 1,34,766 crore in 20-05-06, Rs. 1,44,279 crore in 20-04-05 and Rs. 1,48,067 crore in 20-03-04.

According to a report of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, out of a total of 866 projects, each costing Rs. 20 crore or more, 297 projects spread over 13 ministries — are running shoddily and deficiently. They are much behind their schedules of their completion. To complete them, more than
Rs. 24,000 crore will be required to be spent additionally because of the delay. This amount is sufficient to wipe off poverty, and alleviate the sufferings of the farmers or complete water supply projects in a large number of villages or complete many more projects.

According to the same report, the total estimated cost of all 866 projects was over Rs. 3,24,473 crore. Now, it has gone upto about Rs. 3,75,888 crore. Delays up to over 16 years have been observed in some acute cases. Some of the ministries disclosing large number of delayed projects are road transport (93), telecommunication (36), power (27), petroleum and coal (25 each), and shipping (22). Civil aviation has 12 delayed projects, while steel and urban development have 11 such projects each.

The Government of India has spent more than Rs. 2,000 crore per year on sick and loss-making public sector undertakings (PSUs) since 1996. If restructuring package of loss making but non-sick PSUs is included the amount would be over Rs. 17,000 crore. The loss making companies have repeatedly failed, despite all efforts to revive them.

 There are a number of money guzzling projects, which are going, with no hope, for any returns or even becoming viable. But they are kept going, at the cost of the tax payers. According to sources in the I&B ministry, Prasar Bharati normally receives a total grant of Rs. 1,000 crore or more from the ministry, against a revenue of Rs. 600 crore or less, almost every year. According to the Government figures itself, the Government TV Company has been losing over Rs. 1000 crore every year, as the following figures would show.

Out of a total of 243 Central Government owned companies, only 143 made profit. Of these too, a majority made only marginal profits. PSUs made a total loss of Rs. 9,000 crore approximately in
20-04-05 . 73 PSUs are chronically loss-making units.

Another report shows that in the past three years food grains worth Rs. 31,500 crore has been siphoned off the public distribution system (PDS), making it to become a state-sponsored munificence and generosity for black marketeers, corrupt babus, ration shop owners and others.

The North-East is in a categorization of its own. Of the eight states there, not a single grain of wheat supplied to Sikkim , Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Assam reaches the targeted poor. Arunachal Pradesh can claim to be a little less corrupt as 96.2% of its PDS wheat gets diverted. Manipur takes the cake as 97.7% of its rice allocation is also siphoned off with Nagaland following close behind at 88.6% of rice being diverted.

In 2006-07, Rs. 3,289.71 crore worth of rice and wheat was stolen in UP. The corresponding figure in West Bengal was Rs. 1,913.76 crore and in MP, Rs. 1,038.69 crore.

 The acknowledgment of failure or weakness, of any system or project, or organisation, is the first step toward rectifying the same. But the real problem arises, when the Government tries to cover up and says all is honky dory and well.

In these days of coalitions, even the Prime Minister is not able to take a stand and say that ‘enough is enough'. It is not, that delay in the completion of the projects, is entirely due to inefficiency and/or any administrative reasons. A substantial part, exceeding 90% is due to rampant, all pervasive corruption. The main corruption breeders, which have led to the gross delay in the projects include red tape, lack of transparency, accountability, notwithstanding, the Right to Information Act. There is a tremendous sense, of ‘Biradri' system, or tendency to defend colleagues or a person of the same caste or belonging to the same cadre or for reasons of sharing the loot. Even assuming that one, or less than one percent. officials are trapped in corruption, there is a procedural delay in investigations, some time making total exercise irrelevant. Another factor is gross delay in finalising the cases of corruption, in the court trials. As on 1st January, 2006 , a total number of 6,414 CBI cases were pending trial in the several courts in the country. Over 2300 were over eight years old and 198 were over 20 years or more old. In this climate, inadequate, or no punishment gets awarded. Nexus between the dishonest politicians and corrupt bureaucrats enables the corrupt to retain their jobs. The results of their corrupt activities gets translated to ill-gotten wealth and properties. It is not a matter of surprise, that Transparency International, which ranked India at 72nd position among 180 countries in corruption in its latest survey of 2007 has, specifically identified defence procurements as most likely processes for corruption to take place. It says that the “maximum corruption takes place during government procurements. For example, when the government buys wheat or arms, or when Public Sector Units (PSUs) procure material. It is also extremely difficult to quantify.” The Central Government itself is more concerned with its survival, rather than good governance, or fighting corruption or ending criminalisation.

 In this process the sufferer are the citizens of the country, who have to pay taxes, for development and corrupt governance. The money, which should be going for the development of the country, is pocketed by the dishonest, who carry on merrily, by sharing the loot. Commenting on a case of corruption, the Supreme Court on 7th March, 2007 observed; ‘The only way, to rid the country of corruption, is to hang a few of you, (that is the corrupt) on the lamp post. The law doesn't permit us, to do it but otherwise we would prefer to hang people like you from the lamp post” It added, “Everywhere, we have corruption. Nothing is free from corruption. Everybody wants to loot this country. The only solution for this menace is to hang some people in the public so that it acts as a deterrent for others.” Good governance does not come by tall talk and by making claims that poverty will be wiped off the country. There is no dearth of money to develop the country, if the Government shows its will, that every single paisa would be used for the purpose for which it is earmarked. The Indian Economy for the rich may be shining, but for the 83% working population, it is the daily income of Rs. 20 or Rs. 600 per month. It is a paradox that we have hundreds of millionaires and billionaires, but also billions of the poorest of the poor, in the world. The situation will not change, unless the leaders realise that they can do what they have to do, and sometimes they can do it even better than, they think they can. The only requirement is, they should always be asking themselves about the wrong doings and taking deterrent action “Why? Why Not? Why Not You? Why Not Now”.