CVC fixes six-month deadline for probes

Confirming this here on Saturday, Vigilance Commissioner V S Mathur said theCommission was forced to issue such a directive as most of the ministrieshave done virtually nothing against those found guilty by it.

The Commission has directed that preliminary hearing and inspection oflisted documents be done within four weeks, issuing of summons to witnessesand fixing date for regular hearing be done during the next three months andthe inquiry report be submitted during the next two months.

Mathur said "quick punishment to the guilty or exoneration of the innocentis the key to the success of the vigilance system." This does not requireany law or ordinance. What had shocked the Commission was the fact that ittakes years to complete departmental action, making a mockery of the system.

It had been found that frequent shifting of inquiry officers by thedepartment concerned, failure of the ministry to furnish documents relatingto the case and delaying tactics by the accused lead to accumulation ofthousands of cases.

In some cases, the departments take years to complete even a preliminaryinquiry against the person concerned. It was due to this reason that "wehave decided to monitor the progress in each pending case henceforth,"disclosed Mathur.

He said one of the reasons for the CVC not giving vigilance clearance topublic servants whenever files are sent to it was due to the delays by thedepartments concerned in supplying information and pendency of cases.

He admitted that this caused problems for the innocent officials againstwhom frivolous complaints are filed just to delay their promotions orpostings. It was largely due to this reason that the Commission had nowfixed a time-frame and the Government must follow it.