Centre sits on ‘secret’ CVC report, next waits in wings

Parliament may have been stalled for almost a week on account of a secret report of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), but there’s...

Parliament may have been stalled for almost a week on account of a secret report of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), but there’s another report which has not been declassified for a year due to the Government’s inaction.

The 2001 annual report of the CVC is being treated as a secret document in Satarkata Bhavan since it hasn’t yet been tabled in Parliament. And even as the CVC awaits the clearance of the 2001 report, the first copy of the 2002 annual report has, a few days ago, been handed over to the Government.

The 2001 annual report was handed over to President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam by then CVC N. Vittal exactly a year ago. Says his successor P. Shankar: ‘‘This is embarrassing since the 2000 annual report is on the internet. We have submitted the 2002 report but have to treat last year’s document as a classified one.’’

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CVC officials say the inordinate delay in tabling of the 2001 report occurred because of a contentious chapter titled ‘‘cases of non-acceptance of the Commission’s advice and non-consultation with the Commission.’’ The chapter contains a list of all the pending vigilance cases in which Government Departments and Ministries have either delayed in taking action against errant officials or gone against the CVC’s advice.

The DoPT is required to get comments from each of the departments listed and include the Action Taken Report (ATR) in the CVC’s annual report. It is the non-compliance by several departments which is apparently holding up the process, thereby pushing back the date of the report being placed in Parliament. The Standing Committee of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) recently pointed this out, but the 2001 report is yet to see light of day.

Shankar says Government inaction shows lackadaisical approach towards vigilance matters. ‘‘This shows non-assignment of priority to the issue by these departments. It is only if people as a whole get to know about the action or lack of it will the departments find themselves under pressure. Right now the information being made public by us is dated.’’

Ritu Sarin

Ritu Sarin is Executive Editor (News and Investigations) at The Indian Express group. Her areas of specialisation include internal security, money laundering and corruption. Sarin is one of India’s most renowned reporters and has a career in journalism of over four decades. She is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) since 1999 and since early 2023, a member of its Board of Directors. She has also been a founder member of the ICIJ Network Committee (INC). She has, to begin with, alone, and later led teams which have worked on ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks, Swiss Leaks, the Pulitzer Prize winning Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Implant Files, Fincen Files, Pandora Papers, the Uber Files and Deforestation Inc. She has conducted investigative journalism workshops and addressed investigative journalism conferences with a specialisation on collaborative journalism in several countries. ... Read More