The United Nations Organisation (UNO) has found that public private partnerships or PPP projects in India’s roads and power sectors are most prone to corruption, with private partners’ evasion of revenue-share due to the government emerging as the biggest menace. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has also flagged loopholes in Indian laws’ ability to curb such graft, and suggested that private partners in PPPs be designated as public officials to make them accountable under the Right to Information Act.
This would also bring such projects under the proposed laws to protect whistleblowers and guarantee service delivery to citizens. Between 2012 and 2017, India aims to invest a trillion dollar in infrastructure creation, a bulk of which is to come through the PPP route. This growing trend merits the need for legislation and procedures to address probity issues in PPPs, the UN report states.
The UNODC reached out to 400 private sector and government officials to assess the ground realities on corruption in PPPs, but just 100 responded. Most entities were silent, reticent or cautious in their responses to (queries about corruption)… reluctance and fear to talk about corruption is an important area that needs to be addressed, the body has stressed.
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