70 plus dept officials ‘penalized’
Dimapur, October 24 (MExN): Nagaland Vigilance Commission today said corruption has become institutionalized and has an elaborate system around it. For this, the state’s Vigilance chief has said, the agency ‘endeavors’ to see that the “innocent are not harassed but the guilty are booked according to the law.”
In his speech in observance of Vigilance Awareness Week, October 25-November 1, Vigilance Commissioner of Nagaland Metongmeren Ao, IAS, said that the task of the Vigilance is to “identify the points and places of corruption” and “evolve steps to plug such loopholes” to the “maximum extent possible, without affecting adversely, the pace or quality of field operations.”
He said corruption has become institutionalized and there is an elaborate system surrounding it. “Responsible citizens of the state have every right to demand transparency and accountability from those public servants who have been entrusted with running the affairs of the state,’ the Vigilance commissioner stated.
So far the commission has investigated and disposed a good number of cases. The Vigilance commissioner’s list showed for year 2007-2008, 52 ‘finalized’ cases, 22 officials imposed with penalties and convictions in 21 cases and 31 cases dropped “due to lack of material evidence”. During 2008-2009, the ‘finalized’ cases were at 18 and various penalties and convictions for 43 officials in 18 cases. During 2009-2010, the ‘finalized cases’ stood at 23, various penalties and convictions against 13 officials in 13 cases; one case dropped “due to lack of material evidence” and 9 cases pending trial in the court.
Likewise, the State Vigilance Commission is a non-revenue earning department but has managed to affect recoveries and stopped fraudulent payments in terms of several thousand crores of rupees for the state’s exchequer, during various case investigations. These cases include a pension fraud (in the Treasury & Accts & AG) involving Rs. 395 lakhs, a Rs. 1225 lakhs Road Link Project (R & B), the PWD VRS scam (2008) involving an amount of Rs. 834 lakhs and the ‘Bogus appointment’ of teachers (School Education) from 2002 to 2009 involving Rs. 3, 000 lakhs.
Regarding the case of ‘bogus’ appointment of teachers, the commission said the SIT Vigilance will endeavor “to expedite the status of those remaining 41 teachers who have been placed under ‘Awaited’ category due to non-receipt of confirmations, while as logically concluding the cases of the rest of the teachers.” The Nagaland government has so far already terminated the services of 84 teachers in the ‘bogus’ category, the commissioner said.
Whenever any fraud or misconduct “comes to light” Metongmeren stated, “it is necessary not only to enquire into the same but also to evolve steps to ensure that such fraud or misconduct would not happen or would at least be minimized later.”
The Vigilance chief further said that the existence of the state Vigilance Commission does not mean that the government departments can ‘relax’ thinking that the Vigilance & Anti-corruption agency is responsible for ensuring ‘vigilance’. “Every disciplinary authority is expected to ensure that there is no misconduct committed by its employees. In spite of such efforts, if a case of corruption takes place, it is only then that the anti-corruption agency is expected to step in,” Metongmeren said.
