System leading to conviction of an honest bureaucrat!

Context: Former Coal Secretary to Government of India H.C.Gupta has been convicted along with two of his juniors for two years imprisonment with a fine of Rs one lakh each and the MD of the company for three years with Rs 30 lakh fine by the CBI court in New Delhi. 

An honest bureaucrat, unlike a crook in the hierarchy, always does things with an assumption that people around him - subordinate officers & the staff below him and the political bosses above him - are sincere and straightforward like him with no exchange of bribes. He doesn't delay things but derives pleasure in disposal of the work entrusted to him on time. May be he commits little procedural mistakes with no deliberate motive. But anyone who looks at it later on happens to locate the loophole and finds fault with such a procedure adopted and decision taken by him without looking at his total background and handling of public affairs in the past. A crook in such a system first of all would have avoided the whole issue of allocation of coal blocks under some pretext or the other or involved others on his behalf after collecting commissions from the company.

Strangely the GOI officials alone have been taken to task. What about state government officials who should have recommended the allocation on the basis of facts placed before them by the company in the normal course. The main allegation against the convicted officials of GOI is that they failed to verify the facts and figures quoted by the company in the Screening Committee as per the guidelines - quoted by the judge in his order on the basis of which the court seemed to have exonerated the coal minister, none other than the PM Manmohan Singh himself. Another moot point is whether a senior official posted in PMO in charge of coal ministry too had failed to properly scrutinise the file before the PM put his signature on the file. So the lacuna on the part of PMO is also intriguing a little. 

One doesn't know if the convicted officials had cared to put up a such a defence before the court of law.

Lesson:  Honest decision makers in the Government need to remember the possible repercussions of their actions in view of rascals and rogues - (babus and politicians) - taking advantage of the loopholes in the system and making money in the process.

++++++++++++++++