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Money Laundering
Most of the development works in Manipur continue to be stuck in the same rut for the past many years. Multipurpose projects were taken up with much fanfare, but few see the light of the day, or could provide the benefit to the people. Water supply schemes were installed in many places promising the local residents with uninterrupted potable water, but these schemes were either abandoned halfway or could not benefit the area covered by them.
Not a single project could be completed within the stipulated time. This has resulted in a loss of huge amount of money. The reason for all these is not far to seek. We don't believe that our engineers, planners and project formulators are inexperienced hands. But the problem crops up at the time of implementation of the projects.
One reason for this is mismanagement of fund sanctioned for these development works. Unfortunately there are no effective mechanisms to check laundering of public money in the name of implementing development work. Bills were paid to contractors without carrying out the assigned works. Supply is another area where a huge amount of public money goes down the pockets of individuals.
It is natural then that only money is spent without seeing the results. The center has blamed the State Government that money sanctioned for development works are being swindled. This may be true but the Center should also be partly responsible for it. Only a naïve person will continue to provide or lend money to any individual or group without creating any mechanism to ensure a return of the money or monitor how the money is being spent.
The Center will have to introduce a system that could effectively check money laundering. Seeking utilization certificates to ensure that the next installment of the fund is released will not do the trick. Any government that does not care two hoots will be ready to issue utilization certificates as many as the Center needs.
A monitoring unit should be set up in all the State capitals to see that fund sanctioned is properly utilized by the State. Diversion of fund is another chronic problem in Manipur. There were times when money sanctioned by the Center had to be returned, as the State could not utilize it. Apart from prohibiting mis-utilization of funds, fund diversion should also be completely stopped.
The most effective way to check money laundering is to pull up the guilty person, be it an officer or a Minister and then to award him the befitting punishment. The fear of indictment by the competent authority will deter these elements. But such things still remain a dream of average Manipuris. The issue merits serious discussions by the political parties now. A determined Government after the election can make the right move. But if names involved in the past scams are elected again money laundering will continue without any shackle.
(Courtesy: The Sangai Express) |
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