essay: need for transparency in public administration.
Answers
Answer:
The administration has a vital bearing on a country and its people. In ancient India right from Vedic Days, it has been the avowed objective of administration to be responsive, transparent, accountable and citizen-friendly. These factors could be regarded as the touchstone of any administrative setup. The administration of Koutilya during the Mouryan period was more or less centralised with an effective system of intelligence gathering. During the Mogul period, the concept of centralised administration continued with greater vigour. Accountability and transparency in this centralised administration were conspicuous by their absence. Then came the colonial administration of the British. Here again, the basic format was of a centralised administration. There was a vertically controlled administrative set up with a District Magistrate and Collector as the key figure. The Collector in the eyes of the people was “MaiBap” whose job was to maintain law and order and collect revenue. While the administration was efficient, it had
hardly any room for being responsive, accountable and transparent. It was not responsive and not citizen-friendly. These concepts, however, underwent a sea change in later years with token participation of people at various levels. Many administrative innovations were no doubt brought about in various fields like social, economic and technological, but these were mere cosmetic changes and primarily intended to suit the colonial requirements.
The primary concern of the citizens in a good civil society is that their government must be fair and good. For a Government to be good it is essential that their systems and sub-systems of Governance are efficient, economic, ethical and equitable. In addition, the governing process must also be just, reasonable, fair and citizen-friendly. For these and other qualities and good governance, the administrative system must also be accountable and responsive, besides promoting transparency and people’s participation.
The test of good governance lies in the goals and objectives of the government, in its policies and programmes, in the manner of their execution, in the result achieved and above all in the general perception of the people about the quality of functioning of various agencies, their attitude and behaviour towards the people, their sincerity, honesty and their commitment towards the public duties. Good governance implies accountability to the citizens of a democratic polity and their involvement in decision making, implementation and evaluation of projects, programmes and public policies. In this perspective, transparency and accountability become invaluable components of good governance as well as of good administration.
Transparency makes sure that people know exactly what is going on and what is the rationale of the decisions taken by the Government or its functionaries at different levels. Accountability makes sure that for every action and inaction in government and its consequences there is a civil servant responsible and accountable to the government, the society and the people.
Answer:
“In a democratic country like ours, where all the agents of the public must be responsible for their conduct, there can be few secrets, The People of this country have right to know every public act. The denial of the right to know which is derived from the concept of freedom of speech and expression, through not absolute yet is a factor which should make one worry”- Supreme Court
In Indian context the nexus between politicians, bureaucrats, criminals and Police is known clumsy fact. Corruption has rooted in all walks of life. Every wing of the administration is rotten with corrupt practices. Even judiciary is also grappled by the devil of corruption. The right to know or need of transparency in Public administration becomes too important to keep it away any longer.
Transparency means knowing the reasons, facts, logics and basis of the decision taken by the administration. Transparency in public administration in legal terms means that a citizen of India has a right (legal or fundamental) to have access to the information about government’s actions. Denial of such information to the pubic by the public authorities without appropriate reasons would be offence under the law. Thought Supreme Court has recently gave a constitutional status for the right to know. Yet under the guise of Official Secrets Act 1923 and section 123 of Indian Evidence Act 1872 the executive can withhold the records from production in the court of law on security point of view. The laws were framed by the British with the sole purpose of protecting the interest of the British executives and keep them out of the purview of the scrutiny of court and has become outdated. These laws corrupt officials and protect them from the public exposure