M A I N   N E W S

16 more officials on CVC list
Vittal equates corruption with malaria

NEW DELHI , Feb 20 (PTI, UNI) — The list of IAS and IPS officials against whom the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has recommended action on charges of corruption has swelled to 107 with 16 more names being added to its Website.

Central Vigilance Commissioner N. Vittal, who is in the thick of a controversy over his decision to refer to the CBI the alleged income tax violations by some of the politicians linked with the hawala case, has added 16 names to the list.

The commission had earlier made public names of 91 senior officials against whom it has advised that proceedings be initiated for their actions since January 1990, giving the nature of recommendations as well as the date and the status of these cases.

The list shows the commission is awaiting information on the outcome of most of these cases while in some sanction for prosecution has been accorded by the government.

Earlier this week, the CVC had put on its Website names of 77 Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officials against whom it has recommended criminal proceedings or imposition of a “major penalty” for alleged acts of corruption.

Of these IRS officials who belong to the Customs, Central Excise and Income Tax, the CVC has recommended launching of criminal proceedings against 10 and imposition of major penalties against 67.

Controversy erupted last month when the commission put on its Website names of senior bureaucrats, including some in the rank of Secretary against whom it had recommended criminal or departmental proceedings on corruption charges.

The commission has set up a panel of 71 retired officers for conducting departmental inquiries against government officials facing corruption charges.

Meanwhile, Mr Vittal said determination, empowerment of people, transparency in public sphere and deterrent punishment to wrongdoers can help check corruption in the country.

According to a report from Bangalore he listed “five devils”, including presence of concept of ‘biradari’(brotherhood) among the corrupt, that have let corruption flourish in the Indian system.

Scarcity of goods and services, red tape and complicated rules and procedures, lack of transparency in decision-making, legal impediments to prove the corrupt guilty have also helped breed corruption in India, he said in his paper on ‘Quality in government’ at the service quality conclave, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CCI).

Mr Vittal said an objective list grading all organisations, under the purview of CVC, on the basis of level of corruption in them needs to be drawn as a step towards fighting the malady.

A clear idea of the dynamics of corruption is needed to tackle and curb it at different levels, the CVC pointed out, adding he was working on a three-point programme to check corruption and hoped to eliminate it one day.

Equating corruption with malaria, he said malaria could be controlled by preventing the breeding of mosquitoes. Since many rules and procedures in India breed corruption, Mr Vittal said, the first step to fight corruption was to simplify rules and procedures. Post-tender negotiations on government purchases was one such source of corruption and an order has been issued to simplify the procedures, he said.

Secondly, public should be empowered and greater transparency brought in public sphere. The third and final step is to mete out effective punishment through departmental inquiries or prosecution of corrupt people.

Pointing out that corruption flourished because of “low risk-high profit” factor, Mr Vittal suggested to the government to confiscate ill-gotten property by enacting law to check and control the menace.

The CVC emphasised the need for building public opinion in the country to force MPs and MLAs to file annually information on their properties to the Speaker or the Chairmen of their respective Houses. The government should confiscate benami properties belonging to politicians, he suggested.

Mr Vittal said the CBI under the changed dispensation was in a position to take independent actions though its working needs to be further strengthened.

He said the governments in the past in Hong Kong, Singapore and Italy took strong measures to check corruption and succeeded to a major extent.

In Italy and France, the Magistrates were able to take on the mafia and tried to reduce corruption. It was true that some of the Magistrates in Italy had to die in the process but the fact that these countries made efforts to bring down corruption was noteworthy, he said. “The point to be noted is that corruption can be fought and eliminated but what we need is a determined mindset,” the CVC added.