Kalmadi Arrested – Is it a case of too little too late?

Suresh Kalmadi has finally been arrested. It feels like eternity since the Common Wealth Games (CWG) scam came to light and Kalmadi was named the prime accused. But is it a case of too little too late? Could this debacle have been averted and if yes, how?

To answer these questions we will have to do some sleuthing into Kalmadi’s background and see if we can find any tell tale signs of corruption, incompetence or any other traits that could help us foretell his current actions.

Kalmadi has had a very illustrious career. The highlights of his career have been listed below

It’s pretty hard for me to believe that Kalmadi got up one morning and decided to scam the nation to the tunes of thousand of crore. The Common Wealth Games execution was abundant with incompetence and corruption and I am sure Kalmadi’s career did show these traits.

[i]The first signs of lack of execution were shown by Kalmadi during his tenure as the Minister of State Railways, in relation to the Karjat-Panvel rail link. The project was launched on January 29, 1996, with an initial provision of Rs 12 crore as against the total estimated cost of Rs 89 crore. However, not even 10 per cent of the budget allocation was actually spent on the work.

[ii]In August 2007 the Suresh Kalmadi lead Olympic Association announced a letter of intent from Formula One Management to promote and back the Indian Grand Prix. In October, 2007, the Formula One Administration paid Rs 1600 crore to JPSK Sports Private Limited to build an F1 track in Noida. Summer Kalmadi, son of Suresh Kalmadi has a 13% stake in JPSK.

[iii]In 2009, a Delhi court granted bail to Suresh Kalmadi’s aide Sanjay Mahendroo in the case of alleged financial bungling in holding Queen’s Baton Relay in London in 2009.

[iv]In August 2010, documents accessed by CNN-IBN raise questions over the legitimacy of the Commonwealth Games Organizing Committee (CWG OC) headed by Indian Olympic Association President Suresh Kalmadi. They indicate that the original bid documents submitted by the OC to 72 countries of the Commonwealth in 2003 were tampered with.

As can be seen Kalmadi’s career was not as illustrious after all. It has been replete with examples of lack of competence and acts of corruption. Kalmadi had used his seat to influence contracts in favor of close and dear ones. Having been able to get away with it built a sense of arrogance and lead to the CWG scam that cost the Indian exchequer millions of dollars.

The question to consider is whether we should hold only Kalmadi responsible for the CWG scam. What about the government that let Kalmadi’s actions go unchecked? Could the CWG scam have been avoided if the government had seen the tell tale sign in Kalmadi’s professional career?

If the answer to the above questions is ‘Yes’ then wouldn’t the same set of checks into an employee’s professional life help avoid corporate scams? Think about it. In a smaller microcosm of the corporate world unbiased pre and post employment checks could help provide the required information that can help separate a good employee from a bad one. The lack of an employee background check and the cost of the resulting repercussions is anyone’s guess.

[ii] http://www.f1toto.com/f1circuits.php?id=73

[iii] http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/cwg-scam-court-grants-bail-to-kalmadi-aide-mahendroo-79511

[iv] http://ibnlive.in.com/news/cwg-bid-tampered-to-let-kalmadi-be-chairman/129121-3.html

Top 5 Reasons why Post-Employment verification is necessary

Most of the companies today understand the importance of pre-employment verification. The pre-employment verification is a one-time check and does not provide insight into a candidates’ background beyond the point at which the pre-employment verification was conducted. It is essential for a company to be vigilant and introduce an ongoing post-employment check policy. The top five benefits of an ongoing post employment check can be outlined as below

1. A one-time pre-employment check may result in important information about the candidate being overlooked. This may happen due to human error or unavailability of proper information at the time of verification. An ongoing post-employment verification process helps find any missing pieces of information and provides a complete picture of the candidates past.
2. When candidates’ doctor their resume, at times they give fake references which offer recommendations as per the candidates’ requirements. An ad-hoc reference check may provide discrepancies in the recommendations initially provided.
3. Post-employment checks provide a continuous feedback on any criminal records that are registered on the candidates name. This information allows the HR manager to either counsel the employee or take the necessary actions depending on the severity of the crime.
4. In today’s job seeker oriented market a lot of employees are on a continuous  lookout for new opportunities. These employees make a sudden transition to a new job leaving the HR managers in a fix. An ongoing post employment check helps keep an eye on the candidates’ online activity. This can include the candidate’s activity on job boards, social sites such as LinkedIn, etc. and provide HR managers an insight into the candidates long term intentions.
5. Many employees pursue and complete new educational degrees and qualification to help them climb the corporate ladder faster. An ongoing post employment background check allows verification of the submitted education qualifications and ensure that only the deserving candidates are promoted.

Eventually a post employment check can only provide information about a candidate. The ability to correctly discern information is the prerogative of the HR manager. If there is a constant upwards job attrition trend then the HR manager needs to identify process failures within the company and institute corrective procedures.

It’s pretty hard to identify whether the low employee productivity, enthusiasm are a factor of employees inability to perform or due to the negative work environment. These questions, though tough, need to be answered to reduce employee attrition rate and provide deserving candidates an opportunity to grow.

Anna Hazare and the Call for Transparency

In the last few days there has been one movement that has captured the imagination of the common man in India and forced him to get up and make an impact in the fight against corruption. In a nation of forgetful people it has finally made us Indians say ‘Ab bahut ho gaya.’ Anna Hazare has succeeded in doing what a thousand patriotic movies and countless political parties could not do – make us take responsibility for our nation’s pitiable situation.

As I intensely watched the minute-by-minute broadcast I questioned myself about Annaji’s intentions. Was his fight limited only to getting the Lokpal bill passed in a form that could help punish the guilty? Maybe I am reading too much between the lines but I think that the real fight was for transparency and the right to information. After all, all scams happen in the darkness of misinformation.

So now the question arises how do we build transparency? The obvious answer would be to build a system of checks and balances. But aren’t checks and balances only as good as the people that manage them? Hmm… the mystery deepens. Maybe a set of people with strong integrity and no related biases can be the keepers of this system of checks and balances. The more detached an entity is from the system, the more its ability to make unbiased decisions.

However this whole idea of transparency cannot be limited to the political and bureaucratic arena. This idea needs to percolate deeper into our society and to become part of our professional and personal lives. In today’s fast paced life people want to achieve everything in a short period of time, by hook or by crook. The thought that a person can get away with anything needs to be changed and a fear of the system needs to be inculcated.

The reason people resort to cheating or lying is because they see others do the same and get away with it. The easiest way to instill a principle is to make it a law.  In the sphere of work, transparency starts at the hiring process. It can be achieved by:

• Carrying out in-depth background checks on new hires. A clean record talks volumes about the candidate’s attitude and beliefs.
• Hiring a third party employee verification service provider to conduct background checks. This will allow for unbiased report and permit better judgment making.
• Implementing a system of checks and balance by decentralizing the hiring process. The final say in hiring a person should not be the domain of a single employee.
• Maintaining an employee profile section within the company’s website and outlining the past professional and educational qualifications of all the employees. This will provide an additional layer of transparency.

We are constantly influenced by the world around us. If every company implements an in-depth background check system and is able to weed out undeserving candidates from the hiring process then it will develop a sense of fear, for the system, in the hearts and mind of the job applicants.

Job applicants will have to be righteous while applying for jobs not because they want to be but because they have to be. As a person becomes honest in his professional life, the same quality of transparency and integrity are passed onto his personal life. Hence allowing us to break the vicious circle of deceit and corruption, once and for all.

Background checks and our Educational system

Education maketh a man and an educated man makes for a progressive nation. In our country the role of a teacher has always been a revered one. A teacher is instrumental in developing curiosity, knowledge and character in his/her disciples. This exalted position is now under threat of losing its illustrious reputation, thanks to the number of unqualified people that have started faking their entry into academia.

Educational institutes need to set up a multi level hiring process and make employee background verifications a pre-requisite for application. It’s in the institute’s benefit to place new hires as temps, scrutinize their work and then convert them to full time employees. This will also allow the background verification service provider the time to carry out a thorough and detailed check.

The background check process for new hires in an educational institute can be complicated. The elements to consider in this process include:

1. Feedback from previous or current students: The best insight into the job seekers previous performance can be provided by their students. If possible the background check company should take feedback from the job seeker’s ex-students and provide a report about the same to the new employer.
2. Propensity to pursue new qualifications: The candidate under consideration should be given extra brownie points if he/she shows the enthusiasm or eagerness to pursue new qualification. This can be verified by checking on the ongoing qualifications that the candidate may have mentioned on the application form. This is an important aspect to consider as a candidate that pursues newer qualifications will be able to impart the most up-to-date knowledge to his/her students.
3. Involvement with extremist parties or ideologies: Any involvement of the candidate under scrutiny with extremist parties should raise an immediate red flag and lead to immediate disqualifications of the job application. As a teacher, a person has immense power to influence young minds, any nurturing of these young fragile minds in the wrong directions can have derogative effects.
4. Criminal check: The other important background check to consider is the criminal check. This helps verify whether the candidate has committed any criminal offence in the past and its severity. A teacher’s responsibility is not limited to imparting knowledge but also to develop moral values in his/her students. A criminal record for a job applicant can imply a lack of judgment or a total disregard for rules and regulations. In any case presence of a criminal record should be a cause for immediate disqualification.

The other employee verifications to consider are the address and education verifications. Both of these are equally important in providing further insight into the candidate’s qualifications and background.

It is as much our responsibility, as the schools, to ensure that the right people are overseeing our children’s development. We should ensure that the school mandates background checks not just for the teaching staff but also for all the other employees. Having our children develop and grow in a safe and secure environment is the best gift that we can impart to them.

We at JantaKhoj understand this need and provide background service to assist educational institutes choose the right person. Reach us on 040 42007092 or sales@jantakhoj.com to get a free sample of the employee background verification services we provide.