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The role of chief vigilance officers in public sector enterprises could be downgraded soon. The government has begun an exercise to revamp the role of these vigilance officers in the state-run units and has accordingly asked for feedback from the companies.
The proposals on the table include clubbing the office of vigilance officers for more than one company and modifying their position in the organisational hierarchy. As of now chief vigilance officers in public sector units report directly to the chief executives since 1999, but the department of personnel and training has asked if this too needs to change. “Whether the post of CVOs is required to continue with the current posts or wishes to upgrade/downgrade or to abolish the posts in view of the workload and requirement of vigilance related matters,” an office memorandum issued by the department to the state run companies notes.
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The exercise is the largest one begun by the government in recent years to reassess the role of the vigilance set up in its companies. To steer the exercise a committee has been formed under the chairmanship of additional secretary in the department of personnel ‘to consider the issues related to reassessment of chief vigilance officer positions in public sector enterprises and review of (their) extra pay, incentives, pay structure and allowances, etc’. The exercise has begun within a month of the government of India appointing KV Chowdary as the chief vigilance commissioner for the country. The appointment broke tradition by allowing an income tax officer to get onto a turf held so far by the IAS. It also ended a stir created by the Congress party about the vacancies persisting for several months. Party president Sonia Gandhi had flagged the delay as an issue in Parliament too.
Vigilance officers at each state-run enterprises operate under a dual reporting structure working as arms of the Central vigilance commissioner. There are 290 Central government-run companies in India of which 169 are holding companies. Each has a CVO set up but more than half of those are currently vacant. In the ministries or their subordinate offices the system is different, where one of the director or joint secretary level officer functions as the chief vigilance officer in addition to their other work.
The proposal, an officer of DoPT said seeks to set a balance between the need to ensure companies keep their financial transactions transparent but are not scared off by excessive probing that has delayed investment decisions. Vigilance inquiries have at times been used in major government companies to block the appointment of chief executives. The public sector enterprises board has come out with an order in 2015 that says any vigilance enquiry against an officer due for promotion as director or chairpersons will be ignored by it unless it has been commissioned at least six months before the process of selection has begun.
While the CVC is appointed by a political committee headed by the Prime Minister and includes the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, the firm-wise appointments is done by the CEO of the firm with a representative from the CVC. The appointment of Chowdary was held up till the Supreme Court lifted a five-month stay due to alleged lack of transparency in appointment.
