With heat still emanating from the first information report (FIR) filed on alleged corruption in coal block allocation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday advised the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to tread cautiously on policy matters.
“While actions that prima facie show mala fide intent or pecuniary gain should certainly be questioned, pronouncing decisions, taken with no ill intention within the prevailing policy, as criminal misconduct would certainly be flawed and excessive,” Singh said while inaugurating an international conference on “Evolving Common Strategies to Combat Corruption and Crime”, organised by CBI as part of its Golden Jubilee function.
Singh’s remarks come a week after the CBI registered an FIR against former Coal Secretary P.C. Parakh, accusing him of criminal misconduct for allegedly reversing his decision on the allocation of the Talabira coal block to Hindalco. The development prompted the Prime Minister’s Office to issue a detailed clarification, as Singh was Coal Minister at that time.
The Prime Minister said over time, investigating agencies in the country are increasingly enquiring into administrative decisions and also matters relating to policy making. “Such cases require great care in investigation,” he said, adding that policy-making was a multi-layered and a complex process in the Government, and will increasingly become so. Therefore, “I don’t think it would be appropriate for a police agency to sit in judgment over policy formulation, without any evidence of mala fide.”
He said that the lines of confidence must be clearly drawn between investigating agencies on the one hand, and honest executive functionaries on the other, so that public servants are not paralysed in taking effective decisions based on their own sound judgment and on the apprehension of an ill-informed inquiry or investigation.
Decision-making
“It is also important that errors of judgment are distinguished from criminal acts. Decision-making in a world of uncertainty is a highly risky operation and some decisions which appear sensible ex-ante may ex-post turn out to be faulty. Our administrative set up has to be so managed that the fear of the unknown must not lead to paralysis in decision-making,” he added.
On the debate over autonomy of CBI, Singh made it clear that investigation agencies were a part of the Executive and must function under its administrative supervision. He, however, said, “That the debate on autonomy has acquired political overtones is indeed unfortunate. What is almost as distressing is that sensitive investigations are increasingly becoming subjects of running media commentary, often on the basis of material that is not otherwise in the public domain.”
Singh said economic growth also implied greater opportunity for corruption. “While we must maintain utmost vigilance in preventing corruption and do our utmost in ensuring transparency, accountability and probity in public life, it is also important to ensure that the work of nation-building goes on at a reasonably fast pace,” he said.