Leniency of any hue shown could be a wilful and deliberate delay by the Departmental Heads and Administrative Secretaries in deferring , prolonging and protracting , if not circumventing the procedures of taking action against those officials under their administrative jurisdiction, who mostly are found having indulged in corrupt practices. Such measures, which we could call crafty tactics to provide breathers to such employees, only promoted this menace in the system. We have through these columns , on many an occasion , highlighted the need to handle departmental enquiries immediately on receipt of information or recommendations from the designated agencies handling vigilance matters which could result in either prima- facie establishing the guilt or finding no solid evidence against an involved official and provide mental relief from the agony of what could be one’s likely fate. We are surprised to find that majority of the Government departments are continuously observed indulging in dawdling activities in respect of handling and holding regular departmental enquiries, although detailed and time bound guidelines for proper action are clearly issued by the Government.
Vigilance cases, as a natural corollary, deserve preferred attention not rarely but strictly periodically as also departmental enquiries so that speedy action could be taken as any delay, besides with the ramifications enumerated here, could impair any action at a later date since records, files, papers and related items which could serve as convincing evidences could be tampered with or misplaced or dealt with in such a way which could obfuscate the natural course of law. That type of situation could undermine the very purpose of establishing Vigilance Bodies, Anti Corruption Institutions and other Investigating Institutions. It is not that the higher levels in the UT administration are not in know of that situation since there are weekly committee of Secretaries meetings where due reviews do take place. Agreeably, finding an unsatisfactory results on the ground, usual circulars and reminders are issued and circulated but do such post review action taken measures bearing fruits , is important to analyse.
Most astonishing part of the matter is that apparently no importance is accorded even to the findings and the recommendations of the investigating agencies like Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB), Crime Branch etc with the only possible intention of avoiding the culmination of departmental enquiries to be led to the logical conclusions. The General Administration Department , it is learnt, has once more issued a circular as latest as on 3rd instant in this regard but as usual, this circular may not meet the fate of the earlier ones , the fears as such needed to be allayed . Looking to the no appreciable change in the peculiar mindset of conveniently managing to disregarding the clear cut guidelines and therefore allowing the situation to appear in favour of giving long bridle to offending officials even though prima facie purported to be involved in activities under the realm of vigilance radar and scrutiny, the healthy administrative system was getting further distanced away from us. How long shall it be allowed to continue?
How long , again , shall it be allowed that some Departmental Heads and others at the top of Government institutional units shall evolve their own systems within an established system by resorting to ‘substitutes’ like appointing “enquiry officer” or “enquiry Committee” in place of full fledged departmental enquiries to have the concerned issues settled at their own levels ? How it can be allowed that even if a departmental enquiry was instituted and proceedings concluded, despite that no orders were issued. Let the usual bureaucratic phraseology of “serious view will be taken ” be now replaced with a solid and concrete action against defaulting Departmental Heads and Administrative Secretaries so that the system worked in a healthy and transparent way.
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