The State Administration should have taken a cue , if not sort of a tip-off from the system prevailing in top PSUs operating throughout the country and abroad as to how the process of promoting officers is encapsulating a clearance from the vigilance angle and proper verification of an impeccable record of no punishment even in the shape of a warning or a censure from the concerned departmental and other related agencies to any of the eligible officers for promotion. Even at the stage of attaining superannuation, getting the financial benefits as applicable must pass through the filtration and scrutiny from the vigilance angle. When for enhancing the scale of salaries and perks , benchmarks as established in such PSUs and even Central Government departments are cited as a valid ground, which could not be otherwise questioned as a right of an employee , then why their process of promotions and even transfers could not be symbolically followed if not meticulously emulated?
Again, it had to get the due attention from the Governor’s administration only , in that from now onwards,it has been made mandatory to follow the practice of deciding and ascertaining the status of the cases registered by the Anti- Corruption Bureau (ACB) before considering the promotion of tainted officers of the State Government. It is a welcome step going to have some but needed impact on containing corruption and corrupt practices in the administration. In the first instance , therefore, under the new policy , according promotion to next higher grade to over a dozen of such officers has been withheld for want of necessary information of “where the cases stood” or the latest status report from the premier investigation agency of the State. It could give a succinct message to those who are under the “radar” of vigilance agency.So, the requisite integrity certificate following clearance from investigating agencies shall assume due importance and relevance.
Going by the administrative order the Administrative Department concerned had to place before the Establishment -cum- Selection Committee headed by the Chief Secretary , the integrity certificate and clearance from Vigilance in respect of each officer in the zone of the consideration but the question is whether this well set procedure travelled beyond the Rules book or the official files. Obviously, it did not and even the tainted officers, therefore, were getting promotions or to put it in common parlance, were being rewarded for being tainted. It was unbelievably being done even if there were FIRs registered against such tainted officers under Jammu and Kashmir Prevention of Corruption Act. Whether this all looks incredible or disgusting, is left to anyone’s judgment.
Why should the existing procedure be not implemented in letter and spirit? Why had this procedure not been followed as a thumb rule and a pre-requisite and non negotiable for promotion exercises and who were continuously undermining the well set procedure and related issues, could open a Pandora’s box . To follow the already existing rules, as such, Governor’s administration has decided to go by the explicit procedure so as to restraint the dubious practice and rein the unbridled violation of departmental procedures, statute book and the law of the land and, therefore, the State Chief Secretary has already started acting strictly on the set procedure in respect of promotion of State officers. As a sequel to this, in the last meeting of the Establishment -cum- Selection Committee, it was decided to defer according of sanction of higher grade to 13 Deputy Secretary rank officers and asked the General Administration Department to process their cases afresh after ascertaining the latest status of the corruption cases registered against them. We wish a strict and unquestioned compliance with the set procedures to contain corruption in the system of governance.
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