New Delhi: The CVC should be empowered to
investigate politicians if corruption in government
departments is to be checked, former Central Vigilance
Commissioner Pratyush Sinha said on Tuesday.
"CVC has no jurisdiction over political executives.
Important (corruption) cases involve both bureaucracy and
political executives. That limits scope of enquiry undertaken
by CVC," Sinha told PTI.
He emphasised that the CVC should have a dedicated
investigative arm to conduct direct inquiries in big
corruption cases like 2G spectrum allocation, Commonwealth
Games projects and Adarsh society scam.
"The organisation of CVC is very small and mainly work
through the Chief Vigilance Officers of various organisations
who in many cases are insiders. There is a need to strengthen
the CVC in terms of number and quality.
"Often It has been found that direct inquiries undertaken
by the CVC were generally more effective but in order to probe
many such (2G scam and CWG corruption) cases, the CVC would
need a separate cell of officers who are experienced in
investigation," he said.
"The CVC's role is limited to government of India
organisations and central enterprises and undertakings. The
role of CVC is advisory and recommendatory. Due to all these
reasons, the CVC can only have limited impact on the level of
corruption in the country."
Terming corruption as a "serious problem", the former top
boss of country's anti-corruption watchdog said pending graft
cases in several courts should be expedited.
"There is a need to frame suitable laws in order to
tackle the supply side of corruption," Sinha, who retired in
September last year as CVC after a four-year tenure, said.
"There is also an urgent need to expedite the
departmental enquiries and criminal cases pending in courts
otherwise delays blunt the deterrence against wrongdoings,"
he said.
"Corruption is a very serious problem in India. It erodes
the credibility of the entire system and it has to be tackled
in war-footing. It is not confined to one particular region,
organisation or department...It is equally important that
innocents are saved from harassment and culprits are punished
and they are punished within the timeframe," Sinha said.
He said that the CVC recommends suitable disciplinary
action against government officials. It is for the
administrative authority to impose punishment effectively and
promptly to keep corruption at bay.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 19:34