CVC witnesses a dramatic drop in complaints

CVC witnesses a dramatic drop in complaints

 What has happened?

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) saw a dramatic drop in the total number of complaints received by it in 2017, keeping in line with the drop in actions by various government departments in cracking down on corruption. The 23,609 complaints received in 2017 by the CVC was less than half of almost 50,000 complaints received in 2016, and the lowest in the previous five years

 Annual CVC report

• Of the total of 2,069 investigation reports examined by CVC in 2017, 45% were closed without any action, while only 3.09% led to criminal proceedings
• During the year 2017, there were some significant deviations from the Commission’s advice” by various Ministries
• The Ministry of Railways refused to follow its recommendation in six investigations against senior officials
• The Ministry of Civil Aviation, too, has a similar track record, including not investigating a former Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Air India, who recruited his OSD’s (Officer on Special Duty) son as a trainee pilot in Air India, and allowed the top official to retire in 2016.

 Why the drop in complaints?

• View 1: Due to improved system for weeding out duplication of complaints and a few other streamlining exercises undertaken in recent years
• View 2: Lowering of public trust in anti-corruption bodies because of their perceived inefficiency, quality of investigations and possible manipulations at various levels

Reason as per the report

• Delay in filing the report

The procedure: When it receives a complaint, the CVC calls for inquiry reports from the appropriate agencies. As per the laid down procedure, the inquiry/ investigation reports are required to be sent to the Commission within a period of three months

There is a considerable delay in finalizing and submitting reports to the Commission

• Quality of Investigation

There is a lack of quality of investigation reports filed by CVC

From the report: Of the total of 2,069 investigation reports examined by CVC in 2017, 45% were closed without any action, while only 3.09% led to criminal proceedings