VIJAYAWADA: Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad (IIMA), which was asked to study the areas prone to corruption and recommend remedial measures by the State government, submitted its 69-page report to Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Monday. It came up with a nine-point strategy for policy reforms. In the report by Prof Sundaravalli Narayanaswami, focus was on understanding the processes in mandal revenue office, mandal development office, town and country planning office, sub-registrar office and municipal administration that are prone to corruption, suggesting constructive changes and devising a strategy to reduce corruption in these offices.
The IIM team visited several departments and interacted with different sections of people at various levels and found unregulated growth, narrow roads and lack of lung space, inadequate amenities and others.
Similarly, in the municipal department, issuance of building permission, occupancy certificate, assessment of property tax, title transfer, trade licence, payment of bills to contractors/agencies, issuance of birth and death certificates were found to be the key areas prone to corruption.
In the revenue department, reasons for corruption were found to be entrusting responsibilities to field staff, lack of technical knowledge (basic computer skills) among field staff, influencing of revenue officials, dishonesty of employees, public demand for non-adherence of citizen charter, impatience of citizens, outsourcing of activities to contractual employees, lack of supervision and lack of understanding of repercussions in corrupt practices.
The report said the primary reason for corruption in any administration is discretion in decision making and arbitrariness in execution. Corruption manifests not just as monetary benefits but also in terms of kindness and preferential treatment. The IIMA report pointed out that initiatives taken by the government so far are local and reactive, without eliminating the root cause of corruption.