Facing acute staff shortage, the country’s premier corruption watchdogs — the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) and Central Information Commission (CIC) — are overloaded with thousands of pending cases.
While total number of pending cases at CIC is more than 36,000, the situation at CVC is no better with around 17,000 pending cases, both first stage and second stage. According to Minister of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Dr Jitendra Singh, a total number of 36,100 appeals and complaints were pending with the CIC till November end. The backlog has been due to staff crunch in the department though the Commission has been granted full autonomy in recruitment of staff.
“While the Department has appointed five more Information Commissioners since last November, the Government has now taken several steps like issuing guidelines for the Central Public Information Officers (CPIOs) and First Appellate Authorities enabling them to supply information or dispose of first appeal effectively resulting in less number of appeals to the Commission,” Singh said in a written reply in the lok Sabha last week.
A senior CVC official said that the Commission has not been able to dispose of most of these cases due to delay in getting response and clarifications from the related departments.“In some cases, the sanction was proposed way back in 2012 and early 2013. The CVC has put the list on their website as well, so that none of the departments would have an excuse of not knowing about the case. There is acute shortcake of staff also. A huge manpower is required to deal with the rising number of complaints, and the gap will keep growing if is the Government does not address this aspect on urgent basis,” he said.
For timely review and to avoid protracted disciplinary proceedings, the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has issued a number of instructions. “In order to ensure this the Government has decide to dispense with the second stage consultation with the CVC,” said a DoPT official. Amongst various other measures for timely resolution, the CVC has stipulated time frame like submission of case to the disciplinary authority within one month from the date of receipt of first stage advice of CVC, issuance of chargesheet within a week of receipt of decision of the authority, submission of the report by IO within six months, passing of final orders within one months from date of advice of UPSC etc.