Look who can get out of vigilance net

Lateral inductions into the government at senior positions might infuse a whiff of fresh air into a hide-bound system in the government but short-term assignments are throwing big challenges at the government's vigilance administrators.

Lateral inductions into the government at senior positions might infuse a whiff of fresh air into a hide-bound system in the government but short-term assignments are throwing big challenges at the government's vigilance administrators.

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There is no way that vigilance proceedings — that can take years before they are taken to a logical conclusion — can end up punishing the private sector honchos who join the government on a short stint.

There are service rules that empower the government to take action or impose penalty on the permanent bureaucracy even after the superannuation of the delinquent officials civil servants. This ensures that if the vigilance authorities are not able to complete the disciplinary proceedings before the officer's retirement, action can still be taken. There, however, are no such provisions in case of contractual employees who are not entitled to government pension.

In his annual report to Parliament recently, Central Vigilance Commissioner Pratyush Sinha also pointed out that the maximum action that could be taken against chairman, managing director and executive directors of public sector banks was to remove them.

As such, there is a possibility of erring officers going scot-free without any punishment except when the CBI investigates the matter and propose prosecution, the report said.

A CBI officer said one in every five cases probed by the agency end up with a recommendation for departmental action against the government employee.

A senior government official said a similar problem would come up in a few decades with respect to proceedings against government employees recruited after January 1, 2004. This includes those covered under the New Pension Scheme.

Once the government makes its defined contribution under the new pension scheme, it has no role to play as far as handling the pension funds, which remain with a private fund manager at the discretion of the employee. But they are not the only ones escaping penalties.

The CVC report has also pointed to many public sector undertakings (PSU) not having provisions in their service rules to enable them to punish the PSU employee after retirement by reducing his, or her, pension.

"In the absence of such a provision, some public servants feel tempted to indulge in inappropriate behaviour just prior to their retirement from service," the CVC report complained.