Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
IANS/New Delhi


Institution of a “strong and effective” Lokpal, reducing discretionary powers of public authorities and ensuring transparency in government contracts were on top of his government’s agenda, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said yesterday.
He also stressed that the nation must “seize this moment” to bring in far-reaching changes in fighting corruption.
“We are on the cusp of far reaching changes in fighting corruption. The agitation for the establishment of a Lokpal has brought the issue of cleaning up of public life right at the top of the agenda of national priorities,” Manmohan Singh said in one of his strongest statements to date on the issue that has been bedevelling the nation.
“The government welcomes inputs from civil society and NGOs on how to fight corruption,” he said at the biennial conference of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and state anti-corruption bureaus here.
Facing criticism from civil society for suggesting earlier that the Right to Information (RTI) needs review, Manmohan Singh said: “Public authorities should voluntarily place as much information as is possible in the public domain to inform people.
“The RTI is a potent tool to ensure transparency and accountability in public life,” he said.
With the issue of corruption gaining centrestage and becoming a rallying point for people all over, the prime minister said the task of ensuring transparency in public life and punishing the corrupt “had acquired an urgency as never before”. “We must as a nation seize this moment”.
Talking about the measures to check corruption, the prime minister said the government would bring a bill in the winter session of parliament to ensure transparency in government procurement contracts.
He added the government was considering changes in the law to make private sector bribery punishable. According to the prime minister, India’s ratification of the UN Convention Against Corruption June 2011 would strengthen the government’s anti-corruption efforts and facilitate international co-operation in trans-border cases of corruption.
Singh said to meet the requirements of the convention, the government had introduced a bill to make bribery by foreign public officials an offence. Besides a bill to provide protection to whistleblowers, the Judicial Standards and Accountability Bill has also been introduced in parliament, he added.