CBI Director Anil Sinha has claimed before a Parliamentary panel that the agency will collapse if the vacancies are not filled up as the number of cases entrusted to it for probe has doubled over the years.
Sinha told the Parliamentary committee that there is an increase in the number of cases referred to the CBI by the Supreme Court and High Courts and said the agency’s capacity for investigation was around 700 cases a year which has now almost doubled, necessitating more officers to supervise probes.
The agency presently has a total of 1,200 cases and “62 foreign investigations” pending probe. The CBI has a shortfall of 1,531 posts against its sanctioned strength of 7,274.
Sinha also pointed out that over 2,400 gazetted-rank officers are suspected to be involved in corruption and that the agency takes six months to complete probe in small cases, which may even go up to one year. In a few complex cases, the probe may take more than a year’s time to complete.
Following the submission, the panel has asked the Government to complete cadre review in the agency by June-end.
Sinha proposed to the panel to provide longer tenure to officers on deputation in the agency from the States and other Central agencies in addition to other steps taken to manage vacancies, said the report of Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, law and Justice, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.
“He, therefore, expressed that unless State Governments provide the manpower by way of sending more of their personnel on deputation to the CBI, a time could come that CBI would collapse and fail,” it said.