In a bid to root out corruption in the government system, the Manohar Lal Khattar Government in Haryana has decided to empower the chief vigilance officers appointed in various departments.
After conducting one-day workshop for all CVOs appointed in Government departments, Boards and Corporations in December last year, the State Government has now issued directions to all the departments asking them to strengthen and facilitate the functioning of the CVOs.
The appointed CVOs serve as a vital link between the concerned departments and the Vigilance Department to keep a check on corruption.
The Government has directed the heads of departments to give appropriate powers to strengthen the working of CVOs so that they can perform their duties effectively. Assistance of experts or technical officers like that from the Engineering or the Accounts Section should be made available to the CVOs for field inspection or conducting enquiries and examination of technical reports, the Government stated in a letter.
The Vigilance Department has sent a letter in this regard to all administrative secretaries, Heads of departments, Deputy Commissioners, Managing Directors of Boards or Corporations and Registrars of all Universities and Punjab and Haryana High Court.
All complaints of the respective department received directly or referred by Vigilance Department involving charges of corruption, embezzlement etc should be routed through CVOs. Similarly, other complaints involving allegations of corruption received in the department should be monitored by them, the letter stated.
It said, “The CVOs should be assigned the task of monitoring disciplinary cases referred by the Vigilance Department. Besides, quarterly report of complaints, disciplinary action and inspections would be regularly sent to the Vigilance Department by 7th of April, July, October and January.”
The work of CVOs should also be reviewed by the Head of Department every month and quarterly by the Administrative Secretary of the Department, the letter added.
The departments have also been asked to review the existing system and develop a roadmap with the help of CVOs to curb corruption. A report in this regard has to be submitted by all departments to the Vigilance Department by February 15.
During the workshop held by the State Government last month and attended by 80 CVOs, the Chief Minister Manohar Lal had directed them to evolve an effective system to identify the areas of corruption in their respective departments and to take steps by improving systems, with help of IT and simplification of processes.
All CVOs were also asked to monitor various vigilance related matters and strengthen their internal mechanisms of checking and technical inspections.
The State Government had also directed all the departments not to appoint low rank officers as CVOs. The government had stated that the CVO appointed should be an officer of appropriate level, preferably immediately below the Head of Department