Is Integrity a Supplement to Good Governance or Compliment? This essay written by Geetanjali Sharma, student of National Law University, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, bagged the Second Prize in the Online Essay Contest organised recently on the theme "Integrity and good governance" to celebrate the 134th Birthday of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
Beauty adds praise and admiration to human self but still remains a matter of compliment. On the other hand education, good health and securing a decent standard of living make human life complete and supplements the foundation of our living. On a similar analogy I firmly believe that ‘Integrity’ is a supplement to Good Governance and not a mere compliment because it is by virtue of integrity that ‘governance’ translates into ‘good governance’ and rowing (policy decisions) take the form of steering (service delivery) and it is integrity which demarcates good governance from bad governance in a body politic.
We use terms like governance, good governance, ingredients of good governance, the value of integrity etc. in our everyday life. Since we have a direct interface with the government body and institutions as many of us are a part of it as well, we tend to generalize things and not understand the real intent of these terminologies. The issue of governance has been a matter of great debate amongst the global academicians and organizations which lay guidelines for good governance.
Institutions like World Bank and bodies like the OECD have described good governance in terms of accountability of the government, institutional development, participatory democracy, legitimacy of the governing institutions and the one that envisages human development. International Monetary Fund has laid down specific guidelines as basis of granting aid to the nations which forms the parameters of good governance namely: enhancing transparency in policies by recognizing the standards and codes which run the state e.g. Code of Good Practices in Fiscal Transparency and Code of Good Practice on Transparency in Monetary and Financial Policies.
Integrity on the other hand refers to: Honesty, Uprightness, Purity, Probity, Sincerity and decency. On analyzing these criteria we understand that good governance boils down to nothing but ‘Integrity’ which is characterized by:
• Incorruptibility- Adherence to a code of moral/artistic values.
• Soundness- An unimpaired condition.
• Completeness- Quality of state of being complete or undivided.
Integrity of a person or organization that plays an integral role in delivering good governance is related to concepts like morality, ethics and legality. Integrity plays a prominent role in empowering these three virtues and provide for unambiguous and actionable access to the opportunity for superior performance and competitive advantage at every level of governance.
Hence at the level of definition it is clear that integrity supplements to the cause of good governance and becomes indispensable in the long run for persistence of the achieved order and is not merely a complimenting feature.
However these above mentioned values are merely guiding stars as the sense of right and wrong is ingrained in our civilization. In order for the sustenance of these values they have to be ingrained in the institutions to the effect that the institutions tend to dissipate in their absence. Similarly government entrusted with law making, bureaucracy entrusted with implementation of laws and judiciary entrusted with dispensing of justice would fail to perform it’s said duties if they lack integrity and in the absence of which the nature of governance would be termed as bad governance. Today most of the states are modern “welfare states” and thus the greater responsibility requires not just governance by these states but lays the requirements for good governance. Moreover as per academicians like James N. Rosenau, governance is a phenomenon that encompasses government and it is the people as well as organizations in the state which play a role in the making of public policy. Hence maintaining integrity is as vital for the members of the civil society by being aware and responsible citizens as it is for the governing institutions who have assumed power. In the absence of this value of integrity, the virus of corruption enters the body-politic and leads to the gradual breakdown of institutional machineries causing dissatisfaction and disillusion amongst the people.
The state of affairs in the most robust democracy of the world is quite dismal today. India has been ranked at the 74th position among 180 nations as per the CPI (Corruption Perceptions Index) prepared by Transparency International. India stands at the 132nd position in the new rankings of the United Nations Human Development Index (HDI) for 179 nations. This record is worst in the decade as our neighbors like Bhutan and Sri-Lanka have out beaten us and India even lags behind the war ravages nations like Congo, Botswana and Bolivia. These statistics are clearly not the indications for good governance as India’s governance is not able to provide “Smile on every face”- a simple definition of good governance provided by Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the UN.
Some of the reasons which we can attribute to this failure could be trends like:
• Criminalization of politics where law breakers assume reign of powers and are unable to formulate pro-people legislations.
• Rampant corruption amongst public servants as they disintegrate the administrative mechanism because of nepotism and red-tapism.
• Failure of the poverty alleviation schemes and other governmental efforts as they do not succeed in reaching out to the true beneficiaries.
• Corruption in the judiciary especially in the lower judiciary in matters of appointment of judges, adjudication of cases etc.
• Failure of the corporate sector in meeting its responsibilities and involving in white-collar crimes etc.
• The huge budget allocation for defense purpose being wasted by some of the officers who make use of the defense planes etc. for personal purposes.
• The indifference of the law enforcing authorities like the Police, CBI etc. and in certain cases their nexus with these corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and business-men.
This is despite that we have no lack of governance in the country because there are regular elections by means of which people elect their representatives and they run the government. The problem lies in the phenomenon of crisis of governability because of criminals sitting in the parliament and policy makers who have become intellectually bankrupt in terms of ideas to bring novel solution to age-long problems of poverty, illiteracy etc.
Here the role of Integrity comes in and it can play the role of a missing link between governance and good governance. We know that it is the human-being who constitute these institutions and they are not mere abstract entities. By inculcating the virtue of integrity in the society a lot of solutions to such problems can emerge. Some of the suggestions are as follows:
• Reforms in the political funding and electoral process, tightening of anti-defection laws, abolition of schemes like the MPLADS fund and immediate disqualification of criminals from the legislature.
• A code of ethics for civil servants should be formulated and any transgression from that should attract punishments.
• A National Judicial Council should be established for the selection of judges to avoid any more lobbying.
• The vigilance commission and anti-corruption bureau should be strengthened to investigate cases of corruption and misuse of power by the authorities.
• Novel ideas such as "Integrity Pact" as a prior deal before all government biddings should be further promoted.
• The unnecessary expenses on defense should be diverted towards promoting better social security measures.
• “Austerity” should be observed by those in power and they should not misuse their resources for personal gains and pleasures.
• Individuals should become more aware, exercise their power of franchise more judiciously and the role of citizen groups through media and social audits should be encouraged.
Such an atmosphere would introduce reforms in the current existing system in which the sense of integrity could be inculcated amongst everyone which in turn would usher an era of transparency, responsibility, accountability, participation and responsiveness to the needs of the people leading to good governance.
It is ironical that reforms are being introduced to externally impose integrity amongst the masses and rulers whereas it should come from within. However since the state of affairs have declined so much that people have begun to live with it, something has to be done about it. At least a small step should be taken to start off with. In the light of this the decision made by the judges to declare their assets before the public as indicative of greater transparency and not a compromise to the independence and immunity granted on them, comes a symbol of greater integrity displayed by judiciary.
Chinese Philosopher and Scholar Confucius has rightly said, “Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.” Similarly there would be supporters for the move to enhance integrity in public life beginning with those who themselves form a part of the current existing regime. What is required is a step taken further. Honest men with integrity will come up to further assume governance in their hands and eradicate the crept evils in our system. What we need to realize is that integrity is not a mere compliment but is required to supplement or make the good governance system complete in the true sense of the word.
References-
Primary Sources:
• Election Commission of India, Annual Report
• Corruption Perception Index, 2009
• United Nations Human Development Index, 2009
Other Sources:
• Integrity(2009) In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary available at http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/integrity last visited on 10.10.2009
• Erhard Werner Jensen, Michael C. and Zaffron Steve, Integrity: A Positive Model that Incorporates the Normative Phenomena of Morality, Ethics and Legality (April 25, 2008), Harvard Business School NOM Working Paper No. 06-11 Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=920625 last visited on 10.10.2009
• Osborne David, Reinventing Government, Public Productivity and Management Review, Vol.16, No.4, summer 1993 at 349-356.
• Worldwide Governance Research indicators, World Bank Institute available at http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/data.html last visited 10.10.2009
• Handbook of Democracy and Governance Program Indicators, USAID (1998), Washington DC www.usaid.gov/ last visited on 10.10.2009.
• “Helping countries Combat Corruption – the role of the World Bank”, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, World Bank (1997) available at http://www1.worldbank.org/publicsector/anticorrupt/index.cfm last visited on 10.10.2009
• B.P.C Base & M.V.S Keteshwara Rao, “Criminalization of Politics: Need for Fundamental Reforms: The Indian Journal of Political science, Vol. LXVI, No. 4, Oct-Dec, 2005, at 733-54.
• Second Administrative Reforms Commission, Fourth Report: Ethics in Governance, (Government of India, January 2007).
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