Throw light on the causes of corruption in public sector institutions. Discuss some of the measures adopted by the current NDA government to combat corruption.

Causes of corruption in public sector institutions are:
Cultural factor: Certain types of corruption are more or less acceptable in public and have become a part of our traditional system. In other words, we can call it as “chalta hai” attitude being followed by general public and government officials.
Greediness– Greediness means strong desire for money, wealth and power. It forces a person to perform tasks moving outside his/her moral boundaries.
Lack of courage to denounce corrupt practices– Government officials should be bold and brave to denounce corrupt practices. But this actually doesn’t happen in most of the cases. Government officials, especially those working at lower level, get feared from money and muscle power of local politicians and they surrender their honesty and ethical values in front of them.
Lack of transparency: Lack of transparency and lack of awareness about the interests of those in position of power has led to collusive corruption.
Politicisation of bureaucracy: Increasing politicisation has led to decreasing values of impartiality and non-partisanship. This politicisation has led to corruption in governance.
Measures taken by current government to combat corruption
The government is committed to implement its policy of “Zero Tolerance against Corruption”. Several measures adopted by the government so far are as follows:

  • In order to combat the use of black money in politics, the government has introduced the Electoral Bond system which intends to make the political funding a transparent process.
  • Government has ended the system of interviews for recruitment of Group III and IV employees. This step has helped in weeding out corruption in recruitment process.
  • Another measure introduced by the government is the self-attestation of certificates and documents thereby doing away with the necessity of filing affidavits from a gazetted officer.
  • Aadhaar Seeding and Direct Benefit Transfer scheme introduced by the government have helped to combat corruption in public works department.
  • Ban on cash transactions of Rs 2 Lakh and above has been able to reduce the usage of black money in the economy.
  • Introduction of e-Governance and simplification of procedures and systems have almost weeded out middlemen from the system.
  • Government has made it mandatory for the public servants to disclose the details of their immovable poverty in public domain. This has helped to some extent in reducing corruption done by public officials.
  • To reduce corruption in public sector banks, government is trying to bring the PSUs out of influence of politicians and bureaucrats. RBI has also introduced tighter norms to combat the corruption.
  • Earlier Padma Awards were given based on ministers’ recommendation but now they are based on public opinions. Now any Indian can recommend an achiever for the prestigious Padma Awards.

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