Jalandhar, October 12
Finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal has said there is a need to set up a creditable agency for doing the rating of politicians, bureaucrats and others holding positions in public offices.
“For weeding out the corrupt elements from the public administration there should be some system to do the rating of all those who hold positions in the public setup”, said Manpreet, who discussed the issue of corruption at a meeting with chief secretary Ramesh Inder Singh, principal secretary, finance, D.S. Kalha and other senior administrative secretaries here.
He said those found wanting in the rating should be debarred from holding public office till they re-established their credibility. “Merit, credibility and integrity should be the sole criteria to post officers on eminent positions”, he said.
There could be several ways to do the rating of a politician, officer and others. “The agency engaged in the act can go to people to ask what is their perception with regard to different politicians, bureaucrats, etc”, said Manpreet. He favoured “zero tolerance” to
eliminate corruption.
The minister has directed the administrative secretaries of the departments engaged in constructing roads, bridges and irrigation-related works and power projects to make the system of inviting bids and allotting tenders transparent.
“All projects are built with the money collected from people through taxes. It is ‘sacred money’ belonging to people and being holders of public offices we are trustees of that money. No one can be allowed to fill his or her pockets with that money. The commission system must end”, he said.
“I have suggested introducing e-tendering in all departments handling engineering works”, he said. Tender forms should be available on the website of the department concerned and any contractor interested to take part in the bid should be able to submit the tender through electronic system.
“I have also told the administrative secretaries that estimate worth Rs 1 crore of any engineering work should be got counter checked and properly evaluated from some independent agency or evaluator”, he said. There are officers who resort to splitting of major works in various phases with an objective of bringing the sanctioning of those works within their competency. Likewise, there should be independent agencies to check the quality of work at various stages of projects.
When asked that there are politicians who give patronage to corrupt officers and lobby for their postings at plum posts, Manpreet Singh said: “I am of the view that a corrupt officer cannot help a politician to win any election. One can win election by working for people. To keep a corrupt officer at a distance is always good for a politician”, he said.
