The recent government decision to review the working of the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) – the country’s external intelligence agency – owing to irregularities that have lately been exposed is a welcome step. The controversial book on the R&AW authored by a former Major General V K Singh, who served with the intelligence organisation on deputation from the army, appears to have underlined the need for the recent review. The author has written about irregularities in procurement of communication equipment from foreign sources.

Undoubtedly, the R&AW does a skeletal audit of its expenditure by a senior IA&AS officer on deputation to the organisation that amounts to an in-house exercise. However, such skeletal audits have over the years not proved particularly successful in highlighting financial irregularities. During the early 1990s a staff officer to the Secretary, R&AW filed a case in a Delhi court alleging irregularities against his superior officer in the management of secret source funds for clandestine operations. While the court verdict did not indict the officer there might not have been smoke without fire.

A shroud of secrecy masks the working of R&AW, as should be the case with a good intelligence organisation. For instance, Nepal’s Prime Minister GP Koirala recently highlighted in an interview to a television channel that the R&AW had encouraged him to hijack a Nepal Airlines airliner to India in the 1970s . The R&AW keeps all its affairs right from recruitment and administration to promotions and operations under wraps. For instance, the government permits direct recruitment of personnel into the organisation to bypass the Union Public Service Commission which is the normal recruitment agency for Central government services. This bestows a special status on the R&AW and to that extent the government has permitted the intelligence agency functional autonomy. Unfortunately such privileges have led to an absence of transparency in the affairs of the organisation.

For 60 years the Indian intelligence establishment has not been accountable to the nation and therefore the time has now come for neutral agencies to oversee their working. Many other countries have Intelligence Oversight Committees to monitor the workings of their secret service organisations. Similarly the R&AW too should spend tax-payers’ money with care and be made more accountable to the government.