Subhash C Pandey
The lure of easy money and carelessness about the basics of digital hygiene are both responsible for the worrisome situation
Technology is necessary to provide public services to large populations in an efficient mannerand that comes with both risks and rewards. The technology of malfeasance and malfeasance control both have evolved. As the population has exploded, imperatives of technology-enabled governance have also grown, bring in their wake fresh concerns about misuse of technology.
With near-universal Aadhaar enrolment, the opening of PMJDY accounts and their Aadhaar seeding, and the growing spread of Direct Benefit Transfer to cover most subsidies through banking channels, there is a discernible risk of fraud on public finances. Weeding out fake and ineligible beneficiaries of government schemes is a major governance challenge.
Recently, Parliament was informed that about 42 lakh ineligible beneficiaries received Rs 2,900 croreunder PM-KISAN scheme launched on February 24, 2019. (In February 2021, the figures were 33 lakh ineligible beneficiaries receiving Rs 2,327 crore). An amount of Rs 6000 per annum is supposed to be transferred to the bank accounts of eligible farmers in three instalments of Rs 2000 each. Nearly Rs 115,000 crore has been paid so far. The largest number of ineligible beneficiaries were in Assam, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, and Bihar.
Over 10 crore beneficiaries are registered by various state governments. Typically, the registration process requiresthe 12-digit biometric Aadhaar, phone number, bank details, and KYC documents.These are “triangulated” (cross-matched) by software with the help of the public financial management system (PFMS), the platform that enables the automatic transfer of cash into bank accounts. Scamsters use Aadhaar numbers available in the public domain to create fake Aadhaar cards and bank accounts.
Beneficiary databases are likely to have undetected duplicate Aadhaar or mobile numbers if the registration and disbursement (online transfers ) are done without biometric authentication for each transaction.
Aadhaar linking of ration cards had helped in weeding out 2.95 crore fake ration cards resulting in a saving of Rs 17,000 crore annually (ministerial statement on Feb 26, 2018). These invalid cards were misused by dealers to show fake issuesto beneficiaries. Out of 21 crore ration cards, about 90 per cent have been linked with Aadhaar of at least one of the family members listed on the card. Once every adult member’s Aadhaar is linked, more ineligible ration card beneficiaries may come to light. This is gradually being done under One Nation One Ration Card scheme to make every individual’s ration entitlement portable to any part of the country. This will help migrants and also help weed out invalid entries in ration cards.
A ‘teacher recruitment scam’ was recently unearthed in Uttar Pradesh when it was found that using the ID and certificates of one hapless Anamika Shukla, many ‘fake’ Anamika Shuklas were working as teachers in Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV). The fraud was unravelled when the Prerna digital system noticed teachers with identical documents. Some governments are deploying technology to check employee malfeasance. Biometric attendance and the requirement for teachers to upload class pictures have been implemented to check the chronic problem of absentee teachers. The problem of bogus employees is not new. In areas of pure manual work, Thishas been an outstanding concern for long. There are fake muster rolls for workers whose wages would be drawn, who will verify thumb impressions on clumsily organized, sullied scrolls. Somebody may be collecting wages while someone else is working in the field, usually with connivance.
Instances of duplicate and outright fake beneficiaries have also been reported such as already-married girls participating in fresh marriage ceremonies. The enrolment-linked incentives under the mid-day meal scheme in schools and the aanganwadi schemes also invite fake enrolments. How far can one go to check if the children actually get the intended education and nutrition?
With salaries, pensions, scholarships, and other benefits being directly credited into bank accounts without any biometric authentication of beneficiaries, the manual system of ‘acquittance roll’ has been dispensed with. Without proper reconciliation between the disbursing office and the bank, payments can go into fake accounts. I came across a fraud where a cheque drawing officer withdrew salaries of even non-existent and transferred-out employees. These excess drawls were directed to the bank accounts of corrupt officials.
(Auditors in a foreign country found people having preserved cut thumbs of dead people to be used for drawing old-age pension disbursed by cash vans. Smart people find ways to evade even CCTV coverage. There is no limit to people’s ingenuity in cheating.)
Authentication technologies are evolving to check online frauds, identity thefts. QR Codes, masked Aadhaar-card-based e-KYC is increasingly used in mobile banking. The user ID and password for online login have been found insufficient. Online financial transactions now have additional safeguards of two-factor authentication in place. Mobile OTP and complex Captcha Codes — numeric, alphanumeric, visual, word clues, and even simple arithmetical calculations and click to prove you are not a robot — virtual keyboards, disable-copy-paste, etc., are now in place. Even then scamsters are often able to steal IDs and fool gullible people to part with mobile OTP codes.
So, what next in authentication technology? Iris scan? Facial recognition software? Implanted chips? Yes, all these technologies are increasingly being used to safeguard against financial fraud. The self-service kiosks of banks having no human attendants around. Access controls have been installed in particular rooms in offices and factories. These controls allow entry of only bonafide customers into unmanned smart branches or kiosks after biometrics recognition through fingerprints and iris scan, behavioral biometrics like the way customers type in the key board or click the mouse, facial expressions (smile on the face, blink of eyes), gestures, and speech recognition.
We would like to have all IT systems including Aadhaar-based DBT systems to have strong audit checks and trails built into the system. However, we donot want auditors, managers, and public administrators to be guided by constant suspicion, intrusive scrutiny, invasion of privacy, and assault on dignity. It slows down the system. However, there must be exemplary and deterrent actions to deal with those who betray the trust in a trust-based, simplified administrative system.
A troubling report from Microsoft 2021 Global Tech Support Scam Research says that 69 per cent ofconsumers in India experienced online fraud encountersin the past year. Nearly 48 per cent of consumers were tricked into taking part in scams. These instances are thrice the global average. Around 31 per cent of surveyed Indians eventually lost money-the highest proportion globally. On average, Indian consumers lost Rs 15,334 in 2021 although 88 per cent of them were able to recover some money.
The lure of easy money and carelessness about the basics of digital hygiene are both responsible for this worrisome situation. While the use of mobile phones is expanding daily, awareness about privacy and security issues is lagging. Improving this consciousness is an important public interest issue.
(The writer is former Special Secretary, Ministry for Commerce and Industry, Government of India. The views expressed are personal.)
