On Ombudsmen, Black Money, And The IAS

Anna Hazare & Co. want a Lok Pal - what the rest of the world calls "ombudsman" - to tackle corruption. And Baba Ramdev wants all the "black money" deposited by Indians overseas to return to India. In this post, I will prove that both these men are selling us delusions. First, ombudsmen.


There are already 13 Lok Ayuktas (ombudsmen) in the states. Some years ago, The Economic Times conducted a "special survey" on them, with 13 bureaus reporting, and concluded that "states nurse toothless tiger." These Lok Ayuktas have not been able to address the vast amount of corruption so deeply entrenched in our socialist, welfarist, inflationist and interventionist system. This includes Karnataka, whose Lok Ayukta, Justice Santosh Hegde, is one of the leading supporters of Anna Hazare. I myself appealed to the Karnataka Lok Ayukta for justice once, complaining of police harassment - and got nothing. Indeed, the Lok Ayukta of Karnataka was entirely staffed by policemen! Kiran Bedi, a policewoman, is all for Anna Hazare and the Lok Pal. She was also the chief of the Narcotics Control Bureau, a sworn enemy of all smokers of the Noble Herb like me.

What do ombudsmen do in other countries?

The word "ombudsman" comes from Sweden, where the office of Justitieombudsman (or JO) dates back to 1713. In this tiny nation, this long-established office exists to grant redress to any citizen who suffers an act of maladministration. Thus, even prisoners who are badly treated can send a postcard addressed to "JO" (with no address) and expect to receive redress. 

In other words, the ombudsman exists not to tackle corruption, but to address maladministration. Over the last few decades, many nations have copied the Swedish ombudsman: Denmark, 1955; Norway, 1962; 4 US states - Hawaii, Iowa, Alaska and Nebraska between 1969-75; and 8 provinces of Canada around the same time. The British too have ombudsmen now - but their Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration (PCA) can only deal with complaints routed through an MP.

There is another model available for administrative justice - the French model, designed by Napoleon himself, based on a Conseil D’État or "Council of State" -   which is staffed by an elite corps of administrative jurists. Any citizen can apply for redress against any act of maladministration he has suffered from. Mitterand added lower rungs in the districts. And the EU Court in Luxembourg is modeled after the Conseil D’État.

Jurists have long been arguing the merits and demerits of both these systems of providing administrative justice. AV Dicey, for example, thought the French system to be anti-thetical to English "common law." And there is also a disagreement between Bruno Leoni and Friedrich Hayek on the subject.

But even if we set these disagreements aside, the fact remains that ombudsmen come under the rubric of Administrative Justice - and not anti-corruption per se, which is a different matter. We in India suffer grievously from maladministration - and never is there any redress, or "accountability." And as for corruption, we have the Vigilance Commissioner, we have Vigilance Directors in all PSUs, and we have the CBI and a Prevention of Corruption Act. We also have 13 Lok Ayuktas - but nothing works. Thus, I do not believe anything will come out of the proposed Lok Pal. Maladministration will continue. And so will corruption.

In my view, what is needed is an entirely new Constitution: one that puts an end to Socialism and Statism, ends Interventionism and Inflationism, and guarantees Liberty by proclaiming Private Property to be Inviolable by all - including the State. This New Constitution should prescribe administrative duties for mayors and other elected officials, and power should be decentralised to the level of city and town. Thereafter, I will side with Leoni and advocate the Napoleonic system of administrative courts. India is too large a country for one Swedish-type JO to handle everything. After all, Napoleon was trying to administer an empire and not a little nation.

Let us now turn our attention to "black money" - which fires the fury of Baba Ramdev. In my view, it is impossible for our The State to "bring back" money stashed in foreign banks. But, since we do need Capital, the better approach would be to attract the black money of other nations to us. We could also have bank secrecy - something the Swiss no longer possess. We could shift to the Gold Standard, in which case even "white money" - the savings of foreigners - would come into our banks. If we open up our markets to foreign investment, we could attract more Capital than all the black money Indians have stashed away abroad. Note that this does not require strong State action. On the contrary, it requires cutting down the State.

Thus, Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev are selling us delusions. They are basically political lightweights - and ignoramuses to boot. Their supporters claim to be "civil society" - but they desire to enter "political society"! The State is toying with them, trying to defuse the public discontent caused by all the recent corruption scandals.

All this goes to show the venality of the baboos of the Indian Administrative Service, who control "education"; including education in the critical subject of Public Administration. The National Academy of Administration as well as the Indian Institute of Public Administration are both headed by IAS baboons.

And you want The State to educate your children!

Ultimately, we urgently need to revamp our civilian administration - which has turned socialist and interventionist. And has thus become corrupt. These socialist administrators must be turned into accountable civil servants with constitutionally mandated duties. We suffer not only from corruption - we suffer even more because of the fact that our cities and towns have collapsed, thereby making all our lives miserable. We suffer electricity failures daily. Transportation sucks. Roads are terrible and travel slow, uncomfortable and dangerous. So much needs to be done in so many areas - leaving aside all the corruption. In the countryside, land records do not exist. In the cities, the vast majority lives in slums - without property titles.  

In short - we need a Constitution of Liberty. Nothing less will do.