Satish is a young IAS officer who has been appointed as the collector of a district in a South Indian state. Satish is known for his empathetic and compassionate attitude towards weaker sections. During his last posting as collector of another district in the same state, his work has earned him the name 'compassionate collector'. As collector, he quickly started taking people-oriented actions. He started 'janta darbar' (open house) on every Friday, so that people can directly approach him with their grievances and concerns. In one such Janta darbar, a distressed couple came to him with the plight of their sick daughter. The couple informed that their daughter was suffering from a rare heart condition and undergoing treatment in a private hospital, however, her survival requires immediate surgery. They further told him that they were able to raise substantial money through crowd funding and donations, but were still short of 2 lakhs. They showed some medical reports from a private hospital and recommendations of doctors from the same hospital prescribing immediate surgery. They begged Satish to help them arrange the remaining amount for the surgery. Moved by the pain of the couple and on the basis of the reports from the private hospital, Satish decided to give 2 lakhs for the Collector's discretionary fund and accordingly 2 lakhs were released to the private hospital. After a few weeks, an investigative journalist busted a scam where a private hospital, XYZ, was generating spurious reports and bills for treatments of fake patients. These bills were being paid by the government under the scheme for reimbursement of medical expenditure for treatment of weaker sections of the society. The name XYZ struck him and he recalled that the couple also gave him medical reports from the same hospital. The report of the journalist further added that the scam was going on for quite some time in connivance with the government officials. The news item reported Satish's name as an accomplice of the hospital and accused him of swindling public resources by giving money to XYZ out of the collector's discretionary fund. Taking note of the report, the state government has sent a show cause notice to Satish and an enquiry has been ordered to investigate the matter. a) Examine various ethical issues involved in the case presented above. b) Do you think the actions of Satish were ethically justified? Justify your opinion. c) What should Satish do in this situation for handling the allegations of corruption levelled against him?

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Syllabus: Case Studies on above issues.