ACCOUNTIBILITY IN GOVERNANCE

BIKASH CHOUDHURY


Lokpal Bill in any form can't be the be all and end all on prevention of corruption though Lokpal would be an important piece of legislation to control the mindset for corruption to an extent.There are much more pernicious "Systemic Problem" that destroys unimaginable proportion of public money & assets on a daily basis;which needs urgent attention,if we wish the taxpayers money actually reach the people who needs the most.Not surprisingly, that would be also in the interest of people living in the top quadrant;as more people migrate from BoP(bottom of pyramid) to middle class, the profit & surplus generated out of additional consumption would go to those who hold the factors of production & services.News report of food grains being destroyed and assets created out of public money going waste is very common and people take that on their stride.Sad, people don't realize more the public money goes waste and assets destroyed more would be the demand for public fund and therefore higher rate of taxes.Question that usually rings in the mind is Why such things does not happen under private sector in such large scale? Other thing that is regularly over looked is more efficient the system of Govt. better would be the quality of public services(Bijli,Sadak & Pani). Therefore, need a system that deal with core structural issues in governance and make a govt. organization responsive & accountable.That should minimize the scope for corruption and indiscretion.
At present, a lot of information on Govt. operation and expenditure related to its performance,assets&liabilities conveniently swept under the carpet.And, that comes handy to stone wall inefficiency, wrong doing,professional lapses and seer incompetence in some cases.What is way out? First of all Govt. also need to have a "quantitative measure" of assessment of its efficiency in line of "profit & loss Account and Balance sheet" of private sector with mandatory public disclosure on a quarterly basis for each Govt. Dept./Office with authority of public expenditure.CAG(comptroller & auditor general) has very recently come out with guidelines for anew accounting system "Accrual based financial reporting system" to track and assess assets created out of public money.This may be a partial solution to the larger problem in public expenditure.As, there is a need to validate decisions of Govt.Dept./Office and evaluate the efficiency of public spending with a numeric tool that reflects clearly and transparently;how the govt. dept./Office has fared compared to the last quarter/financial year.Therefore, Accrual method of accounting must also include a new dimension of "Economic Value Creation" on annual basis for each Govt. Dept./Office.Further, Economic Value should be part of the Annual Financial Statement with complete picture of assets and liabilities and performance ratios like:economic value creation on expenditure outlay, administrative expenditure to operational expenditure,salary expenses to total outlay.(that is feasible within the constraints of public accounting system).
If these wishes were answered soon, then hopefully Govt. sector efficiency would be enhanced greatly and with substantial macro economic impact and GDP numbers.Apart from economics of public expenditure, a revamped system would travel a long way to enlighten the bureaucracy, create enthusiasm in entire administration on the back of information & knowledge;which was earlier denied to them and public under a closed colonial system.Need we change?