Strength in numbers? Class III govt staff tops corruption chart
Vikram Rautela
Ahmedabad : IF one goes by the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) records, the diligent-looking clerks in government offices may not seem so diligent after all. The staff, who normally comes across as hardworking and overburdened underdogs, are actually way ahead of others in the office when it comes to asking for a bribe! Records say that more than 70 per cent of government servants booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act every year, are Class III employees.
According to figures, of the total of 241 government servants arrested by the ACB in 2006, 174 were clerical grade employees. While the number of Class I, Class II and Class IV employees held stands at 22, 40 and 5 respectively.
In 2005, of the total of 239 ‘corrupt’ government personnel nabbed while accepting bribe, 179 belonged to Class III grade. The share being close to 75 per cent.
The reason? Investigating officers say that clerical staff is the first level of interaction between the concerned department and people who come to that office for work and therefore it is they who get the first opportunity to make some easy money.
Additional director of ACB Satish Sharma, however, attributed the reason to the larger proportion of Class III employees in government. Sources in the ACB say that the clerical staff is usually involved in petty corruption cases, where the amount of money sought is between few hundreds to few thousands. But their bosses (Class I and Class II officers), though less in number, are normally involved in bigger cases involving lakhs of rupees.
In 2006, a total of 204 cases were registered by the ACB from different parts of the State. The figure in 2005 was 205. Against Rs 7,99,894 seized in 2005, ACB sleuths recovered Rs 14,57,501 in 2006. Officers say that it is because of some “big catches” last year.
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