Introduce basic norms of corporate governance into the entire process of budget making and then see the difference it can make
It is quite easy to throw the baby out with the bathwaterwhen
it comes to taking radical policy decisions. Sure, banning the budget is an attractive idea and will once and for all stop the pernicious practice of governments using the budgets as crude instruments of politics to buy their way into votebanks. For sure, banning the budget will stop finance ministers from acting like feudal overlords doling out favours to the favoured and denying privileges to those out of favour. Yet, the fact of the matter is that the government needs to spend money on defence, internal security, physical and social infrastructure and sundry other things that make up a modern nation state. The question is: if we do away with the budget, how then does the government spend the hundreds of thousands of crores that need to be spent each year? Is there a better way of spending government money that will minimise leak, wastage, corruption, inefficient allocation of resources and downright loot by politicians & bureaucrats?
There is a very simple, attractive, practical & workable solution available to policy makers if they are really serious about making every rupee spent on government programmes worth its while. Till the early 20th century, the robber barons of the United States did pretty much what they pleased – killing competition, making monopoly profits, swindling retail investors with impunity and bribing officials to change policies to suit their own corporate interests. In many ways, as the 2001 Enron scandal and many subsequent scandals have shown, corporate greed is a monster that is tough to tame. Yet, over the years, activist investors, an alert media and regulatory bodies like US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) have ensured that unethical corporate barons find it increasingly hard to fleece the investors and milk the markets. More importantly, as the examples of Kenneth Lay & Martha Stewart show, corporate democracy has ensured that greedy corporate hucksters are sent well and truly behind bars when they are caught with their hand in the till.
India needs to adopt something similar when it comes to spending government money. It’s quite simple really. Let each ministry fix its own budget and have the finance ministry function like the clearing house of a bank... merely examining the cheques and passing on the money. At the central, state and local levels, appoint an independent board of directors that will not only scrtunise the policy approach of each ministry, but also monitor implementation of expenditure plans. This independent board would comprise of activists, judges, media professionals, managers, CEOs and politicians from both ruling and Opposition parties. Let there be independent audits to monitor performance. Like in the corporate sector, the boards should have the power to sack a non-performing or corrupt CEO – a bureaucrat in this instance. Those caught with their hands in the till must get the Kenneth Lay treatment.
Let’s face it, though. Activists and the media are fighting an uphill battle just to force politicians and bureaucrats to comply with the provisions of the Right to Information Act. In such an event, expecting the same set of people to give up and get down voluntarily from the gravy train called the Union Budget is perhaps only an exercise in fantasy!
It is quite easy to throw the baby out with the bathwaterwhen
it comes to taking radical policy decisions. Sure, banning the budget is an attractive idea and will once and for all stop the pernicious practice of governments using the budgets as crude instruments of politics to buy their way into votebanks. For sure, banning the budget will stop finance ministers from acting like feudal overlords doling out favours to the favoured and denying privileges to those out of favour. Yet, the fact of the matter is that the government needs to spend money on defence, internal security, physical and social infrastructure and sundry other things that make up a modern nation state. The question is: if we do away with the budget, how then does the government spend the hundreds of thousands of crores that need to be spent each year? Is there a better way of spending government money that will minimise leak, wastage, corruption, inefficient allocation of resources and downright loot by politicians & bureaucrats?There is a very simple, attractive, practical & workable solution available to policy makers if they are really serious about making every rupee spent on government programmes worth its while. Till the early 20th century, the robber barons of the United States did pretty much what they pleased – killing competition, making monopoly profits, swindling retail investors with impunity and bribing officials to change policies to suit their own corporate interests. In many ways, as the 2001 Enron scandal and many subsequent scandals have shown, corporate greed is a monster that is tough to tame. Yet, over the years, activist investors, an alert media and regulatory bodies like US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) have ensured that unethical corporate barons find it increasingly hard to fleece the investors and milk the markets. More importantly, as the examples of Kenneth Lay & Martha Stewart show, corporate democracy has ensured that greedy corporate hucksters are sent well and truly behind bars when they are caught with their hand in the till.
India needs to adopt something similar when it comes to spending government money. It’s quite simple really. Let each ministry fix its own budget and have the finance ministry function like the clearing house of a bank... merely examining the cheques and passing on the money. At the central, state and local levels, appoint an independent board of directors that will not only scrtunise the policy approach of each ministry, but also monitor implementation of expenditure plans. This independent board would comprise of activists, judges, media professionals, managers, CEOs and politicians from both ruling and Opposition parties. Let there be independent audits to monitor performance. Like in the corporate sector, the boards should have the power to sack a non-performing or corrupt CEO – a bureaucrat in this instance. Those caught with their hands in the till must get the Kenneth Lay treatment.
Let’s face it, though. Activists and the media are fighting an uphill battle just to force politicians and bureaucrats to comply with the provisions of the Right to Information Act. In such an event, expecting the same set of people to give up and get down voluntarily from the gravy train called the Union Budget is perhaps only an exercise in fantasy!
Read these article :-
ZEE BUSINESS BEST B SCHOOL SURVEY
B-schooled in India, Placed Abroad (Print Version)
IIPM in Financial times (Print Version)
IIPM makes business education truly global (Print Version)
The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM)
IIPM Campus
Top Articles on IIPM:-
'This is one of Big B's best performances'
IIPM to come up at Rajarhat
IIPM awards four Bengali novelists
IIPM makes business education truly global-Education-The Times of ...
The Hindu : Education Plus : Honour for IIPM
IIPM ranked No.1 B-School in India, Management News - By ...
IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
Moneycontrol >> News >> Press- News >> IIPM ranked No1 B-School in ...
IIPM ranked No. 1 B-school in India- Zee Business Survey ...
IIPM ranked No1 B-School in India :: Education, Careers ...
The Hindu Business Line : IIPM placements hit a high of over 2000 jobs
Deccan Herald - IIPM ranked as top B-School in India
India eNews - IIPM Ranked No1 B-School in India
IIPM Delhi - Indian Institute of Planning and Management New Delhi ...domain-b.com : IIPM ranked ahead of IIMs
No comments:
Post a Comment