Madhu Koda- The New Icon of Corruption & Money Laundry

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 e­mails 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 e­mails 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.

Ex­French 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 1983­95. 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 Scroll down for my other blogs Or visit www.strami.com