A system in rot

In one of my earliest blog posts in September 2008, i had debated the state of Indian roads with the Mint editor Raju Narisetti.
http://newspaper-posts.blogspot.com/2008/08/of-infrsatructure-and-capital.html
http://newspaper-posts.blogspot.com/2008/09/of-infrastructure-and-capital.html

The debate on accountability for the bad state of infrastructure has been re kindled by the CAG report which was reported by TOI:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Delhi/55_of_roads_okayed_by_MCD_substandard_CAG/articleshow/4203120.cms
The report brings forth the following points

1. MCD accepts substandard road work from contractors insteda of opting for minimum quality standards. Third party checks on 20 roads built between 2003 and 2008 reported 55% of the roads below standard.
   42 roads have been damaged during the warranty period and there have been no repairs made on to them. This was while the warranty covered all costs of repairs.


2. 5 newly built roads made at a cost of Rs.3.18 crores were accpeted by the MCD where as third party checks by the CAG have found them to be substandard.


3. Of 304 RWAs (resident welfare associations) surveyed 77% have reported bad roads in their colonies and 71% have said that the roads in their colonies have not been repaired even once in the last 5 years.


4. Of the total allocation of monies for road development, MCD has routinely diverted the money to purchase of vehicles, computers, hiring of vehicles and office work constructions.


5. Contractors delay the road work routinely, and though they should be fined for it, none of they are ever penalised courtesy MCD.


6. On an average 87% of the total project contractual work amounts are duly paid up to the contractors, with out any completion of work.


7. Monies collected from other agencies for road development lies sorely under utilised.


8. MCD has been commissioning quality checks without mandatory quality checks 53% of the times.


9. A third of MCD assets such as drainage, sewage, roads and subways are in a state of neglect.
   

These are just about gaping wide craters in the system, sucking up the taxpayers money and distributing it to a few pockets in the MCD and the Government machinery. While fraudsters and scamsters are tried, penalised and punished, the MCD - Government nexus which is probably a shade worse in fraud, scmas and misuse of public money go about becoming more powerful and more irresponsible and more corrupt in their ways. One would have to give the kudos to CAG to bring such facts on the table. But one needs a more wilful, accountable and "aware" governance to fight se evils of the system.

Of Infrastructure and Capital Statements II

(extending the discussion with Raju Narisetti, the Editor of Mint, my views on the bad quality of the infrastructure is extended thru ths discussion. http://blogs.livemint.com/blogs/romanticrealist/archive/2008/09/01/killer-roads-in-india-and-rethinking-the-death-penalty.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage )
Hi Raju
Capital Punishment is a compelling thought. However is that a panacea of the corruption evils? Hardly! In my views, i tend to agree with Arm Chair guy. The bad quality of roads is just the precuror. From environment to poverty to health care, education and business and more... bad governance prevails everywhere.Corruption is omnipresent! To take the points i suggested a little further
1. As a corporate executive i have metrics, tolls, reviews and score card. I am evaluated on the basis of that.
2. For a business as large as 1 billion people and a trillion dollar economy, where are these management/administration fundamentals? Who does the check? Where are the audit reports
3. Media has been up in arms trying to go after such issues, but that is more from a sensationalizing stand point.Good media is impartial and we seriously need media to start educating the millions.
4. There is this office of the president/governor.That to me is a complete drain on the exchequer unless they can take the position, of safeguarding the public interest. Can they do the audits?
5. I again come back to my previous claims. Socially responsible people need to review and evaluate the government and the officials...Media is to be the voice of the people / neutral medium and the enabler is to be the gubernatorial offices.
I know the constitution doesnot provide any framework on this.. But then we need to start some where.
Finally on the roads infrastructure front, extending Arm Chair guy's thoughts... If a Samsung can Guarantee its TVs, the road contractors must guarantee the quality of their work. If it fails within the guaranteed time, they need to redo without being paid... Manas

Of Infrsatructure and Capital Statements

( .. furthering the course of discussion on the pathetic quality of roads in India, this was a post that i had written in reply to Raju Narisetti's (editor in Chief, Mint) editorial piece on pathetic road infrastructure in India. Click http://blogs.livemint.com/blogs/romanticrealist/archive/2008/09/01/killer-roads-in-india-and-rethinking-the-death-penalty.aspx?CommentPosted=true#commentmessage for the story)

Hi Raju

Off all things, i cant imagine why you would have to toil in some obscure hill way, a Highway 58 or something. Did you miss the roads outside your home/office/club/mall/market etc? If my memory does me fair justise, the utility of tax payers money diminishes by exponential degrees as you move out of Delhi/or the state capitals.And i am still talking Delhi! We dont have a concept of time value of Money in India else the amount that we lost in the traffic jams and on roads would be incomprehensible. It takes only one good monsoon to show how poorly off we are in the quality of road infrastructure. As far as your China comparison is concerned, the common perception of India's GDP growth is that we loose 2% growth opportunity because of infrastructural shortages and shortcomings (whether be road, electricity, water, or any other). So when India was scorching at 9% GDP growth, the common perception was we could actually do a 11% and we were loosing 2% to these bottlenecks. I wonder if China works on discounting their infrastructure. Responsibilibity and accountability go hand in hand: Thats as far as i understand is a universal principle. Universal, right till about it steps to the Indian Policy makers. This may sound crazy and indeed as a action point radical , but who audits the government. Are there any scorecards for the governments and policy makers. Inside the parliament, its just as good as a thief judging the theivery of another. Why cant we have a group of business icons/media people/environment specialists/economists/ social activists, take a yearly account of the policies and the governments? A public death penalty is not as much the answer as an answerable system is. In a mature world, i would vote for rational assessments instead of radical penalties.

Thanks

Regards