More government staff exposed by colleagues
The ACB arrested 160 govt personnel last year following internal complaints
Jyoti Shelar
A growing number of senior government officials are now coming forward to
lodge complaints against corrupt employees working under them.
This trend came to light last year when the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of
the state police received several complaints from top government officials
about the corrupt practices of their subordinates.
The number of government employees arrested by the ACB on the basis of
internal complaints went up last year to 160, as against 135 in 2006.
These cases, which are termed ‘corruption and criminal misconduct’, are
mostly about frauds at the administrative level. “These involve
misappropriation of tenders, proposals, contracts, and government funds by
employees,” said Sanjay Parande, additional deputy commissioner of police,
ACB.
According to Parande, in such cases, the department concerned has to come
forward with a complaint after first conducting its own internal inquiry.
Citing the case of bureaucrat Govind Swaroop, who headed the Film City
Corporation and is accused of cheating the state of Rs12 crore, Parande
said: “Cases of criminal misconduct are complicated and difficult to prove.
Therefore, we largely depend on the department’s help in the investigation.”
To ensure that more government servants are taken to task for their corrupt
practices, the ACB had in October 2006 publicised a government resolution
asking department heads across the state to make a list of “suspicious
employees” working under them. The ACB was supposed to have started a secret
inquiry against employees featuring on the list.
Apparently, few class I officials took the initiative to compile the list.
But “gradually, the complaints are now coming in”, said Parande. Like in
other cases of corruption investigated by the ACB, the identity of the
complainant is kept a secret even in cases of departmental complaints. This
encourages people to come forward and expose corrupt officials, he said.
s_jyoti@dnaindia.net
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