Why We Need Transparency in Governance

10 Key Facts About Transparency that is available in USA

• Transparency requires listing all government expenditures online in an easily searchable database, providing the details of every tax Rupee spent. Ideal transparency websites provide a complete, itemized, and clear description of all expenditures, including but not limited to all contracts, vendors, and grants. All expenditures would have a detailed account of the payment’s purpose and who authorized the payment.

• Transparency fosters accountability in government.

• Increased public access to and understanding of government spending instills greater public confidence in elected officials.

• Transparency brings clarity and sunshine to the characteristically opaque process of government spending.

• Transparency serves as an x-ray machine, allowing people to look into the details of the budget books and understand where their tax dollars go – and to whom.

• Transparency implementation costs at the state level have varied, with most programs having minimal to low fiscal impact.  The benefits of transparency quickly make the cost worthwhile, and in the Internet age, there is no excuse to not post expenditures and financial data online.

• Transparency Laws are better than a Army of RTI activists, who waste their energy and sometimes life in searching for information, which should have been available without demand.

• Transparency alleviates the paper-heavy, inefficient File process, eliminates the unnecessary steps involved with Files, and allows the public to go right to the source.  This makes life simpler for all parties involved – including the government.

• Transparency offers a simple, effective, low-cost tool to put the government back on track and back into the hands of the citizens government ought to serve.

• Implementing transparency at all Five levels of government, whether in Centre, State, District, Taluk (or Corporation) and Panchayat , does not demand great effort; it demands basic respect for communities and taxpayers funding government operation.

Fighting Corruption

Since corruption has become major issue in the country and has become major stumbling block in the progress of the nation.  I have made list of measures that can prevent corruption.


Mandatory Diclosure requirements
Make declaration of assets and incomes mandatory for joining any organisation of public importance including non profit social institutions, Government service, contesting Elections or political parties.  Any candidate want to join public service or contest elections has to produce income tax filed certificate and subsequently file income tax every year and which should be open to scrutiny by a independent body to fight corruption. All firms which apply for any tender or work orders with governments should also do mandatory diclosures on their assets. Make all the tender process public.

Create Deterrents
If anyone is found corrupt then all his wealth should be attached(Already practiced in Bihar by Nitish Kumar) and sold to raise funds for fighting corruption. Arrest and jail term for flouting rules. Debared from fighting any public office including social service organisations, trusts of any kind.

Transparency
Greater transparency in all government, bureaucratic functions. No rule should be left undefined. Any violation or non implementation should be death.
Law should be passed for creating a body for regulating transparency, so that all the standards are met in both public and private decision making.

Performance Driven
Non performing public and bureaucratic functionaries should be de - promoted to lesses roles with lesser pay instead of transfer.

Streamline punishments
Create fast tracking mechanism and punishment parameters , just like traffic cops fine structure for violation is given. The corruption practices jail terms should be given. So the investigation agencies and  courts have to be no longer logjammed over small crimes.

Create Legal Departments 
Create legal dept in all the levels of government, stop depending on bureucrats for interpreting rules.

Political Party Reforms
Make functioning of political parties Transparent. Party Elections Mandatory. Bring party elections under Election commission supervision. Disclosure of funding and expenses Mandatory. Bar political parties from that constituency if they field corrupt or criminal candidates. Appoint a Regulator for Political parties to deal with violations and keeping them Democratic, Transparent, Constitutionally correct and Funding.

Prevention

•  Declare all Family assets and incomes along with application to any government post , Social organization post.
• Filing of Family income tax compulsory for all posts  and responsibility of the management.
• Make Information all the projects except sensitive ones like defense compulsory available freely in the office and website , no RTI needed to know the information
• one man one post.
•  80% percent of all positions in political and Social organizations should be elected not appointed.
• Declare how money was spent by each official , politician publicly and take them into consideration when considering their record while giving another project or work.
• Remove human interface by computerizing and access on on-line
• Define scope, Functions, Responsibilities and parameters  for assessment of job done.
• Reward good work. 
• All kinds of party funding be closed, this is the base for all corruptions.
• Implement Independent Lokpal.
• Make CBI Independent
• Bring Citizen Charter and fix time-frame for disposing of cases under the charter, else make them accountable for delay.
• Making the required changes to double taxation treaties with countries like Mauritius to avoid tax evasions and transfer pricing policies.
• Kill RTI, Make it Mandatory to disclose information about the activities of Beuracracy and Politicians.

Action

• Swift action and Accountable person punished along with accused.
• If accountability cannot be fixed, all the connected persons should be demoted or suspended.
• Property of all should be attached.
• Non Performing people should be demoted.
• Ban people from contesting or being appointed, if they have criminal or corrupt past.
• Enforce Non-Conflict in people appointed.
• Disqualify lawyers, Charted accounts if found supporting corruption.
• Put people in jail for all types of corruption like Bribery, Extortion, embezzlement,Nepotism,Patronage
• Ordinance to attach all properties of families and relatives of any scam ministers or officials and suspend them permanently from all activities. Also make a rule that people with scam be banned life long from politics and govt offices
• Any action of corruption be declared anti-national, with stringent punishment. demote them if they cant be removed from office.
• All irregularities done by Chartered Accountants should result in their disqualification