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Source: The post is based on the article “Lokpal disposed of 68% corruption complaints against public servants without any action: Parliamentary panel report” published in The Hindu on 5th April 2023
What is the News?
A Parliamentary Panel on the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has released a report on the performance of Lokpal.
What is Lokpal?
What are the key findings of the report on the performance of Lokpal?
Complaints against public functionaries: Around 68% of corruption complaints against public functionaries that landed with the Lokpal of India were “disposed off” without any action in the past four years. Only three complaints were fully investigated.
A large number of complaints were being disposed of on the ground that the complaint is not in the prescribed format.
Not prosecuted a single person: Lokpal has not prosecuted a single person accused of the graft to date and its performance seems to be far from satisfactory.
Vacant posts: The post of the chairperson of Lokpal has been vacant since May 2022. The panel has sought the government’s response on the action being taken to fill up the vacancies.
What are the suggestions given by the panel to improve the performance of Lokpal?
Lokpal was established in an effort to promote clean and responsive governance. Therefore, the Lokpal should act as an enabler rather than an inhibitor.
The panel recommends Lokpal not to reject genuine complaints merely on the technical ground that the complaint is not in the prescribed format.
At a time when India is heading the G20 Anti Corruption Working group, Lokpal should rise to the occasion and make every effort to strengthen the anti-corruption landscape in the country.
