Madhu Koda – The New Icon of Corruption & Money

Laundry.

Sukhram is passé. Madhu Koda has arrived. Sukhram’s disproportionate

assets were Rs 4.25 crores and Madhu Koda has added three zeros! New
bench marks for depths have been set in the field of corruption in public life.
The former Chief Minister of Jharkhand has surpassed all corruption
scandals in enormity of the magnitude as well as the short duration over
which the wealth has been amassed. It was left to some junior spokesperson
of Congress to state that there will be “zero tolerance” for corruption in
public life. A brave statement indeed! I wonder why either the Prime
Minister, party President or Law Minister did not make statement.

Madhu Koda with Rs 2000 crores hawala transactions traced to him, and
reportedly disproportionate assets of Rs 4000 crores (About 20% of budget
of Jharkhand State) in short span of two years when he was chief minister.
This is a case which will be watched by the people & industry keenly
because he is the first chief minister to be charged under Prevention of
Money Laundering Act. A petition is pending in Jharkhand High Court
against Subodh Kant Sahay Union Minister of Food Processing for amassing
huge assets. “Corruption scandal a day” seems to be the motto of our
politicians and ministers.

But it seems even Madhu Koda may be a dwarf if the e-mails being
circulated are to be believed. The wealth of late Y.S. Rajsekhara Reddy,
Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, reportedly went up to Rs 78,000 crores in
4.5 years as against the state’s budget of Rs.100,000 crores! A chief minister
as wealthy as the states itself. The e-mails give details of companies owned
by YSR & his family. We are yet to see any head lines. We thought Satyam
was biggest fraud of India at Rs.7,800 crores. This will be ten times in size
and spread. No wonder Congress has been cautious not to make his son
Jagan Mohan Reddy as the Chief Minister of Andhra.

What happened to fodder scandal (Chara Ghotala) of Lalu Prasad Yadav?

No one cares today. All who mattered have again ruled the public they
looted and earned titles of management gurus. Lalu Prasad Yadav was the
only person discussed for a whole session on the agenda of parliament. Now
Madhu Koda will not be on agenda because he was chief minister earlier
with BJP and later with support of Congress. So both the parties may not
touch him. It may be left to the Left to do the slogan shouting in parliament.

Over the decades our political parties, governments, the CBI and the
judiciary have perfected the art of finding ways out of labyrinthine maze of
legal system to spare the powerful and punish low level officials as
scapegoats. Did not we see recently Quattrochi being bailed out without any
charges against him and being absolved right royally?

We have Chief Vigilance Commissioner, a constitutional authority at the

centre with net work of vigilance officers at different levels of hierarchy not
just at state level also in the public sector companies. Why is it that the
scams emerge only after they succeed and not when they are in the
process of “manufacturing”? Obviously the vigilance officers go by
their political masters. Has any vigilance officer been ever charged with
dereliction of duty?

What about the officers of Comptroller & Auditor General? Don’t they get
the early warning signals of potentially wrong transactions? What about the
officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence? Are they not keeping watch
on of processes of financial transactions of high magnitude? Or why should
they come to light only after the damage is done and possibly money parked
safely overseas?

In spite of all the institutional frame work we have, the scams are the order
of the day and keep courts busy so much that the cases may come up for
hearing after lifetime of the fraudsters! Or at least safe passages are
guaranteed till the accused are in power. Once out of power, the opposition
brings out the case of predecessors.

This vicious system continues to flog public finances and rob the exchequer
of tax payers’ money as well as the common man of the development
process. In many countries special courts have been set up to try corrupt
rulers. It is time to set up separate courts on permanent basis to try
politicians and government officials on fast track basis so that they can
be tried without being in the queue for decades like Sukhram. This will
also step up pressures on public accountability.

Ex-French President Jacques Chirac is being tried for fraud involving

fictitious hiring of 43 ghost people whose salary was diverted to party fund
when he was mayor of Paris during 1983-95. The amount involved just
about euro 4.5 million. Not very big by Indian standards considering what
goes on in ghost recruitments under NREGA schemes. Also as per reports it
is for party and not personal benefit. And yet the legal system will proceed
against him and justice delivered. No body is above the law in civilized
societies.

Do we have a lesson in this? Who will bell the cat? The voters also have
become immune to this way of life. Though wryly, corruption is considered
as the first qualification for contesting an election. The values in public life
have to be monitored and ensured only by watchful public as the public
servants & government institutions have by & large let the values, ethics
and morals go down the drain. Unless voters have zero tolerance for
corruption, nothing will change. It is a sad commentary on democratic
value system of the country. Value Management Deficiency Syndrome is
firmly rooted in our system. Indonesia & Nigeria were known as most
corrupt countries in the world. I am afraid we may be in the race.

Vijay M. Deshpande
Corporate Advisor,
Strategic Management Initiative
Pune

November 6, 2009

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