Since the restoration of democracy in 1990, people´s exposure to corruption has only increased. There is hardly any public institution not plagued by this malaise. Political parties, successive parliaments, judiciary, bureaucracy, education and business sector have been neck-deep in sleaze. In the last two decades, corruption scandals and scams involving police have been as frequent. Just a few weeks ago, Rs 12.4 million in foreign currencies were confiscated from a Fly Dubai aircraft at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). Suspected involvement of airport security personnel in the crime has raised serious strategic concerns. [break]
Seizure of large foreign currency indicates two worrying trends. First, corruption is getting more entrenched in public security agencies. Second, security apparatus at the country´s only international airport is getting lax. Government currently deploys eleven security groups from Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, Nepal Army and National Investigation Department at the TIA; as a result, passengers have to pass through multiple security checks. The fact that such a big crime took place even amidst these elaborate security arrangements is deeply troubling.
Starting in 1990, Nepal Police has been one of the most politicized public institutions in Nepal. Recently, caretaker Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai and Home Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar locked horns for weeks before the new chief of the Nepal Police could be settled. Media reports indicated that Bhattarai stood for appointment based on seniority while Gachhadar desperately wanted his ´trusted man´ to get the top police job. This was not the first time a Home Minister has been at loggerheads with interests of Nepal Police; many of Gachhadar´s predecessors fared little better. These political masters know that their ´favored men´ will do all it takes to hatch juicy deals and ensure their share of corrupt proceeds.
Corruption never takes place in isolation. Political subculture always contributes to corrupt practices. Officers who act in corrupt manner are often overlooked and condoned by other powerful members of the subculture. In Nepal, ministers or heads of the police department constitute powerful members of this subculture. In a country where law enforcers are themselves mired in corruption, kickbacks and commissions, who else can we expect to be clean?
The image of Nepal Police has been punctuated by various corruption scams and malpractices. It received a severe jolt last year when the Special Court convicted three Inspector Generals of Police (IGPs) in the multi-million-dollar Sudan scam. Out of nine IGPs who have been at the helm of Nepal Police since 1990, four have been convicted on corruption charges. One more case (of former IGP Pradip Shamsher Rana) is under the apex court´s review. This is strong evidence of how corruption has become endemic at higher echelons of our public security agencies.
The Global Corruption Barometer survey of Transparency International (TI) conducted in 2011 shows the police to be the third-most corrupt institution after political parties and parliament in Nepal. Similarly, a survey of corruption in five South Asian countries conducted by the TI in 2002 had also found the police to be the third most corrupt agency in Nepal. These surveys held at decade-long interval show corruption as systemically endemic in our police force. Police corruption results in high costs for the state. First, it undermines integrity of the police and weakens law enforcement. Second, corrupt officials provide cover for criminal activities like smuggling and organized crimes, as was true of the latest currency scandal at TIA.
The ´rotten apple´ theory has been widely used to explain and understand the nature of police corruption in the US. Some police departments in the US used this theory to minimize public backlash against corruption. According to this theory, police corruption is fuelled by a few deviant personnel. But the problem doesn´t stop here because it corruption often extends far beyond the handful of corrupt cops. Police corruption is a multifaceted malaise emanating from a culture in which loyalty outstrips integrity. Thus, modern anti-corruption approaches delve beyond the ´punitive aspect´ of the problem that ´rotten apple´ theory emphasizes.
Singapore offers the best example in this regard. It has succeeded in preventing police corruption by improving working conditions, recruitment modalities and training programs. In Singapore, fresh recruits have to go through rigorous integrity-based lessons during their basic training. Such training continues throughout their career to ensure that core ethical values of anti-corruption, honesty, loyalty and integrity are inculcated in each of them throughout their police career. Singapore Police Force annually organizes ethics seminar to build its officers´ moral strength to resist corrupt temptations.
In recent years, there has been a shift in handing police corruption, which has moved beyond asking whether or not corruption exists in any given police agency, to asking questions about the intensity, size and impact of the problem in order to devise appropriate anti-corruption strategies. Countries like the UK, Australia, Canada, South Africa and the US, among many others, have formed high level commissions to study police corruption and frame strategies to combat it.
Police Integrity Commission in Australia prepared a comprehensive Fraud and Corruption Control Plan in 2011. Similarly, Mollen Commission spent 22 months investigating corruption in New York Police Department (NYPD), on the basis of which a new anti-corruption strategy was developed for NYPD with the focus on ethical and integrity-based trainings for officers in supervisory positions. Likewise, a Commission on Police Integrity in Chicago recommended higher standards in recruitment and screening of police personnel to mitigate graft-seeking culture. The Association of Chief Police Officers Taskforce on Corruption in the UK took the lead at national level in putting in place robust preventive strategies.
As police is the most visible agent of government, people often tend to assess the character of a government through its police force. Thus cleansing the image of police through holistic anti-corruption approaches must be high on priority list for any state, especially a state like Nepal where the roots of corruption run wide and deep. We must empower Nepal Police to carry out regular integrity tests among its personnel, conduct its own intelligence-gathering and sting operations, as well as to start self-initiated investigations.
Only a combination of preventive and punitive control mechanisms can offer proper antidote to police corruption. Preventive control refers to mechanisms that seek to change the organization in ways that prevents commission of corrupt practices while the punitive approach attempts to deter corruption through an increased emphasis on detection and punishment of wrong deeds.
Forging inter-agency collaboration and partnership between the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority and the Nepal Police can also be effective in fighting the malaise. These agencies must establish different channels of communication at multiple levels, with the goal of strengthening cooperation on preventive measures against corruption. Regular orientation and training on anti-corruption ethics is another important step to lay the foundations for ethical policing. Core issues of integrity and anti-corruption should be integrated into training packages (as in Singapore) towards establishing a zero tolerance policy against corruption in police force.
Police corruption is not simply a problem of the lower ranks or of few ´rotten apples´. As it has systemically crept into all levels of our police organization, corruption has to be dealt with through a holistic reform approach that goes beyond ´rotten apple´ theory or a strict ´punitive control´ modality. A long list of police corruption cases in Nepal has long warranted a broader strategic rethink on graft control and promotion of ethical policing. Failure to do so will only invite more institutional malfunctions and notoriety.
The author can be reached at pbhattarai2001@gmail.com
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