The move comes after a series of corruption scandals that have discredited government
NEW DELHI (TrustLaw) - India has established a ministerial group to consider ratifying the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) after a series of graft scandals that have discredited government, the Indian Express reported on Thursday.
The UNCAC is a legally binding international treaty that obliges countries to implement a range of anti-corruption measures, including establishing laws and institutions to combat graft.
While India is a signatory to the treaty, it has not ratified it, partly due to the obligations it may be held under as a result, campaigners say.
The newspaper said those obligations would include making India's burgeoning private sector more accountable and establishing anti-corruption laws to ensure businessmen found guilty of graft are brought to book - an issue that has stirred debate among some officials.
"A government functionary told The Indian Express that while the (existing) Prevention of Corruption Act does provide for measures to deal with corrupt government officials and public servants, it is silent of corruption in the private sector," said the daily paper.
The newspaper said the ministerial group, headed by Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, would study whether India could amend its existing anti-graft legislation without having to ratify the U.N. treaty.
In recent months, a series of major scandals have plagued the Congress-led coalition government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The government is struggling to emerge from charges that India lost $39 billion due to graft in the granting of telecoms licences in 2008, which forced the resignation of the telecoms minister.
The scandal has paralysed parliament and pushed policymaking into limbo with the opposition refusing to participate in the national assembly until a joint investigation into the alleged fraud is conducted.
A separate bribe-for-loans banking scandal, which implicates state and private lenders, is also being probed, in addition to a housing scam in the western state of Maharashtra and allegations of corruption in the run-up to the Commonwealth Games.
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