The Government of India has set up the Central Vigilance Commission, as the country's apex vigilance institution, to advise the government, government institutions and departments in planning, executing and reviewing and reforming their vigilance work. More information about the functioning of CVC can be had by viewing its official web site at http://www.cvc.nic.in. The web site has provision for citizens to lodge a complaint. It has a list of offenders, a newsletter updates, and a Hindi version too. More information is also given in under the project Crime & Punishment while describing Enforcement Authorities which you may access directly.

Dealing with the topic "Zero tolerance to corruption", the Commissioner of Central Vigilance has diagnosed the corruption scenario prevailing in India as under:

"As we look at the corruption scene today, we find that we have reached this stage because the corrupting of the institutions in turn has finally led to the institutionalisation of corruption. As the Prime Minister pointed out, the failure to deal with corruption has bred contempt for the law. When there is contempt for the law and this is combined with the criminalisation of politics, corruption flourishes. It is the honest public servant who tries to implement the law who becomes a misfit under such a situation.

As of today, entire sections of our public life have become corrupt, as people like SS Gill in his book THE PATHOLOGY OF CORRUPTION have pointed out. As I see it, there are five key players in our Indian corruption scene. These are the corrupt politician (neta), the corrupt bureaucrat (babu), the corrupt business (lala), the corrupt NGO (jhola) and finally the criminal (dada). There are five reasons why our system encourages corruption. These are (i) scarcity of goods and services, (ii) lack of transparency, (iii) red tape and delay due to obsolete rules and procedures which are time consuming and encourage speed money, (iv) cushions of legal safety which have been laid down by various pronouncements of the courts and CATs on the principle that everybody is innocent till proved guilty. The net result is that the corrupt are able to engage the best lawyers and quibble their way through the system. Shakespeare pointed out in his MEASURE FOR MEASURE that laws are like scarecrows. They are initially installed to scare the birds. Once the birds realise that the scarecrow is a harmless doll, they build their nests on it. (v) Finally, biradri or tribalism, where the corrupt public servants protect each other. We talk about people being thick as thieves not thick as honest men!

These five reasons are a mutually reinforcing vicious cycle of corruption. This can be tackled only by setting in motion a virtuous cycle of anti corruption, which will help achieve the goal of zero tolerance. Three elements are needed for this virtuous cycle. The first is the simplification of rules and procedures so that the scope for corruption is reduced to the minimum. One can deal with corruption like one deals with Malaria. One can either give medicine to those who have been affected by the disease or prevent the breeding of mosquitoes. Simplification of rules and removing the red tape that causes delay is like removing the stagnant pools, which encourages the mosquitoes of corruption.

The second element of virtuous cycle should be transparency and empowering of the public. Here the need for a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is very obvious. There is an urgent need for applying information technology in every citizen public office interface so that the common citizen can have access to information that he needs.

The third element is effective punishment. This is where we have to go beyond depending only on the judicial system and see what other weapons can be thought off so that the effective punishment of the corrupt is ensured. Today corruption is a low risk high profit business. The principle of zero tolerance resulting in effective and prompt punishment should increase the risk. This should be the most important single element in the virtuous cycle to eliminate corruption."

A message from the Central Vigilance Commissioner is appended hereunder:

"The Central Vigilance Commission has been made into a statutory authority under the CVC Ordinance 1998. Effective vigilance is possible only if there is greater transparency in our government systems and the people are empowered. The launching of the web site has been done with the objective of bringing the CVCs organisation closer to every citizen in India especially those who are interested in making India a less corrupt country. In this web site we will be publishing all the orders issued by the CVC under Section 8 of the CVC Ordinance.

Section 8 (1)(g) is of particular significance and is important because the expression "superintendence" will mean that the CVC will not only look into the administrative aspect of vigilance in various government organisations, public sector, banks etc. but also the vigilance function.

Prevention is better than cure. Preventive medicine is better than curative medicine. Preventive maintenance is better than breakdown maintenance. In the area of vigilance also we should practice the principle of preventive vigilance. This is possible if we are able to make our systems transparent especially those where discretion is involved and where there is scope for favoritism and corruption.

The web site also will be an effective method of interfacing the CVC with practically every citizen of the country and the citizens can send their suggestions or complaints to the email address of the CVC. It is hoped that the website will become an effective instrument in empowering the people to continue the fight against corruption in the country and make our country a less corrupt country.

All material published on the (CVC) website is in the public domain and every one is free to download the same and publicise it and act on the same."

In a short but very informative work on vigilance management, Shri Chakrabarti gives a lucid account of the subject. Written in the mid-eighties, his statements bear practical significance and testify to the realities existing even today. Shri Chakrabarti served as Director, Vigilance and Chief Vigilance Officer of the Railways at that time. He has shared his varied experienced gained from the assignment in this book. Pertinent extract from his book is reproduced:

"At this stage, it may be relevant to state two cardinal principles about corruption. The two principles are:

1. Corruption permeates from the top,

2. Corruption is a corporate activity

A little elaboration may be necessary. It has been recognized in the report of the Task Force on Vigilance that there are three general categories of railway employees: -

1. Persons who are honest under all circumstances.

2. Persons sitting on the fence- they will resort to corrupt practices depending on the nature of their superior officer.

3. Persons corrupt under all circumstances.

Notwithstanding the above classification, it is a fact of life that the amount of corruption in an organization is determined by the top man. The standards of morality for a family are set by the head of a family. The same applies to the society. The top man can, given the desire to become effective, bring about a reasonable cleanliness in his organization. He has a double-edged weapon with him, which nobody else possesses. He can, through departmental inspection and supervision, locate the corrupt and the corrupt practices and as the disciplinary authority, seated on the pedestal with the authority of legal sanction, can inflict penalties on the delinquent officer. But alas, in a large number of cases the will to be effective is conspicuous by its absence.

The second principle, which has been amply brought out in the reports of Kripalani and Santhanam Committees, is that corruption cannot be practiced in isolation because very soon the corrupt man gets detected by his colleagues who also join him in his corrupt practices as a corporate activity. In fact, there are very few areas where corruption can be practiced in isolation.

It is also a cardinal fact that people joining a Government department or public sector organization, get their reputation established within a comparatively small span of two to five years. A five year period is considered more than enough to establish one's reputation"

The CFCI is not a formally registered society, company or corporation. It is a virtual organization. Information about the CFCI are published in the web site of the CVC at http://cvc.nic.in.

The basic objective of CFCI is to provide a forum where those who want to fight corruption either as individuals or as an NGO can come together and synergise their activities not only among themselves but also with formal anti-corruption bodies like the Central Vigilance Commission, Vigilance Commissioners/Lok Ayuktas in the States, Central Bureau of Investigation etc. In short, CFCI is a forum linking the anti-corruption forces and organizations in the government and the civil society.

The first meeting of the Council for a Clean India (CFCI) was held on 2nd July 2001. It was a unique meeting in the sense that for the first time officials/agencies concerned with fighting corruption like CVC, CBI, Vigilance Commissioners, Ombudsmen in the Banking and Insurance Sector along with NGOs fighting corruption as well as eminent people concerned with fighting Corruption was brought on a single forum to do brainstorming about how corruption can be fought and India can be made into a clean country. The CFCI will be a virtual organization. There is no intention of making it into a registered body or a corporate body. In stead, in the web site of the CVC the names of all the participants of CFCI will be included. As fresh individuals or organizations want to join, after verifying their background the names will be added to the CFCI.

The CFCI web site will contain all information about the various techniques adopted to fight corruption and cases of success so that this in turn can inspire others.

A text of the background note at the CFCI conference submitted by the present Central Vigilance Commissioner Shri N.Vittal is included as Annexure I.

It is a stupendous task. But it is not be beyond the realm of possibility, if the will to get it done is exhibited. Human endeavour and ingenuity have in the past made impossible things possible like flying in the air and reaching the moon etc., which were earlier considered totally impossible. Shri N.Vittal, Central Vigilance Commissioner, analyses this question in a Talk delivered by him to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Hyderabad, on 17.6.2000). The text of the Talk is reproduced as Annexure II.

Netherlands as the host country took the primary responsibility for the organization of Global Forum on Fighting Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity. At international level, the Netherlands is assisted by an Organizing Committee, which consists of representatives of a number of countries and organizations. Members of the Organizing Committee are: United States of America, Sweden, France, European Commission, Romania, Egypt, Nepal, Republic of Korea, United Nations, Global Coalition for Africa and Organization of American States. The Netherlands Government is particularly grateful to the US-Government for being the only official co-sponsor of Global Forum II.

You can access the complete information about the Forum at its Internet site at the address http://www.gfcorruption.org/index.

On 12 March, the fourth meeting of the Organizing Committee of Global Forum II took place in The Hague. During this meeting, the members of the Committee presented the results of the first round of regional consultations in preparation of the Final Declaration of the conference. These consultations referred to the first element of the Final Declaration, i.e. the Building Blocks for a future UN-Convention against Corruption. Furthermore, participants discussed the second element for the Final Declaration, i.e. the subject of monitoring of the effects of national and international anti-corruption strategies. The underlying discussion documents are available on our web site.

Worldwide consultations were started on the draft Final Declaration for the conference. Comments on the draft Declaration will be collected by the Netherlands embassies and by the members of the Organizing Committee. The Final Draft Resolution as approved and adopted reads as under:

"We, Ministers and government representatives, have met in The Hague at the Global Forum II on 31 May 2001 with the aim of preventing and combating corruption and promoting integrity in government and in society.

We are all deeply concerned about the spread of corruption, which is a virus capable of crippling government, discrediting public institutions and private corporations and having a devastating impact on the human rights of populations, and thus undermining society and its development, affecting in particular the poor.

We are determined to prevent and combat all forms of corruption."

The Full text of the Final Report of the Global Forum II is given in Annexure III