Punjab babus, indulging in corrupt practices, would now be under the Vigilance’s hawk eye. For, the Punjab Government on Friday issued detailed guidelines to all the Chief Vigilance Officers (CVOs), designated in various departments, to curb corruption.
The CVOs have been asked to keep a close tab on the activities of the corrupt officers in their respective departments.The State Vigilance Department has asked the CVOs to comply with these instructions to ensure good governance, keeping in view larger public interest. The instructions were issued after it was observed that the CVOs were not discharging their duties in the right earnest.
Guidelines issued by the State Vigilance Department called upon the CVOs to detect corruption and corrupt officials in their departments, prepare list of corrupt officers who enjoyed bad reputation and ensure effective supervision on them and to so regulate their posting that they do not have scope to indulge in corruption.
The CVOs had also been asked to pass on information to the Secretary Vigilance regarding such officers so that they could also keep a strict vigil over them. Besides, Secretary Vigilance would be able to ensure prompt and effective departmental actions or prosecution in courts of corrupt officers when evidence was available. In addition, CVOs have been instructed to scrutinise cases of compulsory retirement of corrupt officials at the age of 55 years. “It would also be the duty of CVOs to detect corruption or unreasonable accumulation of property by Government officials,” stated a Government’s official spokesperson.
“The guidelines were issued by the State Government in a bid to achieve its objective of zero tolerance towards corruption for bringing far more transparency and efficiency in the State administration,” he added. The CVOs had also been instructed to refer difficult and complicated cases to the Vigilance Department for investigation. This is not all! They have also been asked to ensure that any information, date, advice, record etc asked for by the Vigilance Department or Vigilance Bureau was made available without any loss of time.