India committed to zero tolerance against graft, says Jitendra Singh

Jitendra Singh said that India is committed to the policy of zero tolerance against corruption as he addressed the first-ever ministerial meeting of G-20 anti-corruption working group

Union minister Jitendra Singh on Thursday said that India is committed to the policy of zero tolerance against corruption and unaccounted money as he addressed the first-ever ministerial meeting of G-20 anti-corruption working group.

Addressing the meeting through video conference, he said that India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to the policy of zero tolerance against corruption and unaccounted money.

In pursuance of this, he said, a range of initiatives have been taken by the government over the last six years.

The minister of state for personnel referred to India's Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, which the government amended after 30 years in 2018 to introduce a number of new provisions, including criminalising the act of giving a bribe in addition to taking it, and at the same time putting in place an effective deterrence for such actions by individuals as well as corporate entities.

The present act aims at checking corruption in big places and striking hard against corporate bribery. It seeks to establish a vicarious liability so that the actual bribe giver is also exposed, Singh said.

The commitment of the government is to bring in more transparency, more citizen centricity and more accountability in governance, and is indicated by its decisive initiatives to operationalise the institution of the Lokpal in the country to check corruption at high places, the minister said.

The world is presently combating serious emerging challenges of fugitive economic offenders and assets which flee across national jurisdiction, Singh said.

He said that India's Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, 2018 empowers authorities for non-conviction based attachments and confiscation of proceeds of crime and properties as well as assets of a Fugitive Economic Offender.

"We have also ceased the issue of the accused taking shelter in the foreign country and concealing the proceeds of crime," the minister said as he conveyed India''s appreciation that the G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group, with the help of international organisations, is taking this fight ahead in the right direction.

Lauding the efforts of G20 Anti-Corruption Working Group to organise the event under the shadow of COVID-19, Singh said that even the pandemic "cannot deter our fight and crusade to eradicate corruption".

Singh also congratulated the Presidency Saudi Arabia for organising the G20 Ministerial Meeting on its 10th anniversary year and wished that the world will come together for a steadfast and a strong movement to combat the menace of corruption.