The high-end corruption is the prime focus of the parliamentary public accounts committee (PAC) draft report on the 2G scam that its chairman Murli Manohar Joshi, a BJP veteran, is pushing as "unfinished work" of predecessor committee for adoption. It calls for a comprehensive relook and a drastic overhaul of all laws dealing with the malaise of corruption.

Dr Joshi is insisting on the new PAC approve the report that was returned by the Lok Sabha Speaker on June 10 since it was not adopted by the previous PAC as per the rules. The report fully approves the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) calculation of the presumptive loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crores.

The draft report underscores that the CAG himself explained to the committee that "the calculation was not based on any econometric or mathematical methods but based on certain assumptions after trying different econometric models and consultations with CAs (chartered accountants) and thus the loss of revenue to the government calculated on real market situations cannot be faulted, but may be debated."

Noting that the CAG fixes accountability only after the events are investigated, the draft endorses its demand to thoroughly review and revamp the system of governance in the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) and then goes on to express "profound dismay" at the corrupt public servants consider corruption as "low risk and high profit business."

Stressing far greater focus on tackling upstream corruption as it breeds and promotes the malaise downstream, the PAC has recommended a stringent preventive and punitive law and advanced four specifics for "zero tolerance" on corruption:

-- Calibrated scale of punishment based on the premise that higher the post, higher the degree of punishment;

-- Stoppage of undue interference in the working of bureaucracy to let it work without fear or favour and in accordance with law;

-- Fast-track adjudication of cases against persons occupying high positions and charge-sheeted for corruption to punish the guilty deterrently without delay; and

-- Disqualify or render ineligible a person for public office or high position once convicted for corruption.

The draft report lays stress on cleansing the bureaucracy, pointing out that there is no foolproof system to detect the misdeeds of the corrupt in the bureaucracy and it is so since "the accountability procedures in the government continue to be defused and weak and it becomes almost difficult to fix individual responsibility.

"...the very concept of accountability (becomes) null and void if nobody knows who is responsible for the acts of omission and commission in the bureaucratic labyrinths."

Another area of serious worry noted by the PAC is the administrative powers of postings and transfers to reward pliant officers and punish or marginalise officers of unimpeccable integrity who refuse to be privy to wrongdoing or decline to render palatable advice. It, however, suggests no solution to this malady except stress on full autonomy in the system of internal audit and direct reporting to the finance ministry and the CAG.

The draft report calls for the entire data on cases of corruption placed in public domain showing the complaints received, cases under inquiry, referred to police investigation, officers charge-sheeted, convicted and not found guilty.

Noting some top civil servants who joined the private sector and PR firms soon after retirement coming under public scanner for their allegedly questionable role in the 2G spectrum allocation, the PAC wants all bureaucrats of the rank of secretaries or who hold signification positions debarred from joining any non-government company or firm or any tribunal by providing a "cooling disconnect" of three years after retirement.

This would stop "the government or private sector dangling a lucrative assignment to a civil servant on the verge of retirement, allegedly for extraneous reason."