Information Sharing and Transparency in Government
This article deals with the topic titled ‘ Information Sharing and Transparency in Government .’ This is part of our series on ‘Ethics’. For more articles, you can click here.
What is Transparency in Governance?
- Transparency = Openness in functioning
- Transparency in governance means that the criteria, processes and systems of decision-making are openly known to all (in simple words, Transparency in Governance means how governance is being carried out should be known to all).
- Although transparency is often used interchangeably with access to information, transparency is a wider term with information sharing as one of the tools.
- Transparency or Openness has three aspects (PIA)
- Participative Governance
- Information Sharing
- Accountability
- Examples of Transparency
- Jharkhand Public Distribution System (PDS)
- E-auctions of coal blocks: The process made the auction of coal blocks more transparent and uprooted corruption from the sector to a large extent.
Benefits of Transparency
- Helpful in curbing Corruption and Nepotism: Transparency has a deterrent effect on corrupt behaviour as public officials know their actions will be subject to public scrutiny.
- Transparency increases the state’s legitimacy as citizens are more likely to trust it when the government is transparent about its decision-making processes and is open about its policies and actions.
- Enable a citizen to make well-informed decisions, especially while voting: Transparency helps citizens cast votes based on performance rather than narrow considerations of caste or creed.
- Efficient utilization of funds: Transparency in governance ensures the efficient utilization of funds and prevents financial misdoings. When financial information is readily available to the public, it becomes easier to identify irregularities or discrepancies in financial statements and transactions.
- Empowering the Marginalized: It empowers the poor and marginalized sections of society by providing them with the necessary information. For example, access to information can help people living in poverty to learn about job opportunities, government services, and educational programs. It can also help marginalized groups such as women, minorities, and people with disabilities to learn about their legal rights and protections.
Issues with Transparency in India
- Red Tapism in bureaucracy undermines transparency
- Official Secrets Act of 1923, under which government can classify certain information as official which cant be shared.
- Monitoring mechanisms aren’t efficient.
- Lack of government’s political will to be transparent
- Citizens are not interested enough to ensure transparency in governance
- Political parties don’t come under the ambit of RTI
3 Aspects of Transparency
1. Participative Governance
- Participative Governance means when citizens themselves participate in governance and decision-making. It entails the participation of people in decision-making at the grass root level through the decentralization of powers to the local self-governing bodies.
- Participative governance is one of the means to achieve transparency in governance through the bottom-up approach.
There are different ways by which participative governance can be achieved.
1.1 Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) & Urban Local Bodies
- It is a well-known fact that as the distance from the Power of Center increases, proportionately transparency decreases.
- PRIs and Urban Local Bodies were given constitutional status via the 73rd and 74th Amendments.
- Powers have been devolved to Village Panchayats and Gram Sabhas, in which people make decisions themselves.
1.2 Social Audit
- Social Audit is the audit through client or beneficiary groups or civil society groups (i.e. stakeholders) to ensure the social accountability of an organization.
- It was suggested by Ashok Mehta Committee in 1977. After the 73rd Amendment, when Gram Panchayats got Constitutional Status, rural citizens/gram sabha got legitimacy to conduct Social Audits.
- The Supreme Court has also favoured it. CAG, in 2016, laid down “auditing standards” for Social Audit.
- It isn’t just limited to Government companies and schemes. It is equally valid for Private Companies where its stakeholders can conduct audits. E.g., TISCO adopted this technique of Auditing even before independence.
Conventional Audit vs. Social Audit
Conventional Audit | Social Audit |
Top-down concept of audit | Bottom-up concept of audit |
Audit done by Government Functionaries | Audit done by the beneficiary group and civil society (stakeholders) |
Audit with economic orientation | Audit with economic as well as social impact consideration |
Advantages of Social Audit over Conventional Auditing
- Increases people’s participation in governance (Participatory Governance)
- It leads to more transparency and strong accountability.
- Social Audit is an audit from the economic and social impact perspective. Hence more effective
- Infuse effectivity and efficiency in public service delivery (Ghost Beneficiary can be weeded out)
- Generation and consolidation of Social capital and social enterprise
- Social Audit becomes crucial after greater devolution of the central fund to PRIs, and ULB on the recommendation of the 14th FC, as CAG’s audit jurisdiction over such entities is nebulous.
- Social Audits of MGNREGA have played an important role in rooting out corruption from the scheme.
Challenges in Social Auditing
- It is voluntary & doesn’t enjoy legal backing (although some schemes like MGNREGA have legal backing)
- Standardisation problem: Different stakeholders may have varying opinions and expectations, making it difficult to reach a consensus on what constitutes positive social performance.
- Time-consuming
1.3 Resident Welfare Associations
Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) in India are local community organizations formed by residents of a particular neighbourhood or housing society to address and manage various issues related to the welfare and development of their locality.
Bhagidari Scheme (of the Delhi Government)
- The Bhagidari Scheme of the Delhi Government directly involves citizens through RWAs in monthly meetings to mobilize the community to take responsibility for their respective zones and areas. These RWAs are also the first point of contact for state utilities while planning development-related and other changes
2. Information Sharing
- Information sharing refers to the exchange of data among various governing bodies, organizations and the general public.
- Indian Parliament has also institutionalized this right by legislating the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005. (CLICK HERE for more on RTI)
- Further, parliamentary debates are televised in India, government audit reports are published, and government positions on various policy issues are widely advertised through websites, radio and social media.
- Most recently, the government has launched the data.gov.in website to promote Open Data Government (ODG).
3. Accountability
Accountability has three aspects
- Answerability of the officials for their decisions and actions
- Enforceability of rules and laws to punish the officials if they fail to effectively discharge their duty
- Grievance redressal mechanism for the ordinary people who suffer due to the absence of accountability.
(CLICK HERE for more on Accountability)