Role of probe teams should be reviewed

The frequency and intensity with which parliamentary probe committees are summoning mega corruption suspects is unprecedented.

The Constitution has bestowed on them powers equivalent to those of the High Court, meaning they can also issue arrest warrant if a Cabinet Secretary or governor or any other State officer fails to honour their summons.

But all the hustle and bustle currently playing out, with some crime investigation agencies grilling mega corruption suspects up to midnight, appears to be exercises in futility.

Their role, it seems, is to dupe the public that the high and might who are involved in mega corruption are also facing justice simply by being grilled, sometimes, on live TV the whole day. At the other end of the court justice system, hardly any progress report comes out on the dates the suspects are likely to appear again for the mention of their cases.

The inference one can draw out of these shenanigans is that the country is gradually regressing into the law of the jungle whereby courts and prisons will be reserved for petty offenders.

But for the elitist, no matter the gravity of the crime they have been accused of, the harshest punishment they will get is being grilled over and over by the many agencies that have been established to fight corruption - a mere slap on the wrist.

The National Assembly's Public Accounts Committee and the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission have questioned many people suspected of being involved in the NYS scandal but up to date, nobody has been been found culpable and sent behind bars yet we all agree cash was lost.