Give espionage probe a logical end

The arrest of a number of government employees, officials of some companies and “consultants’’ in the last few days for stealing documents from ministries exposes the poor levels of security in the functioning of the government. The leakage was first detected in the petroleum ministry last week and since then it has been found that spying rings have operated in other ministries like power, telecom and environment. These are economic ministries but it is suspected that sensitive information from even the defence ministry may have been compromised. It is mostly lower level government employees and middle level officials of corporate houses who have been found to be involved till now. The exposure shows that there is an organised corporate espionage ring operating around ministries and it is likely that there is more than one. It has also come to light that they have been operating for a long time.

Corporate espionage is a fact of life. Companies try various methods to secure information to encash them or to influence government policies. But it is alarming that the best protected ministries are vulnerable to such crude methods like the use of fake identity cards and duplicate keys, disabling of CCTV cameras and use of official photocopying machines. It was negligence on the part of accused persons and not the vigil on the part of the official set-up and the efficacy of the security measures that led to the detection of the espionage activities. Even inputs for the Union Budget and minutes of cabinet meetings are considered to have gone out of classified files to interested parties. It is difficult to estimate the loss caused by the espionage activities or the benefits made by parties but the damage done to the security system is considerable.

The investigation which has been launched now should be pursued vigorously and all those who are involved in the shady activities should be brought to book. It should not be limited to the lower and middle level officials who have been caught now. There is bound to be the involvement of top level bureaucrats and company managements and they should also be held to account. The usual practice is to disown lower level officials who are caught in the act or to use influence to derail the investigation. This should not happen. Measures should also be taken to step up security in government offices and to ensure that they are not infiltrated by private lobbies and vested interests. Technology can be put to best use for this.