CVC to keep tabs on officers’ foreign trips

All babus will now be under the Central Vigilance Commission’s (CVC) scanner for their ‘‘private trips’’ abroad. Th...

All babus will now be under the Central Vigilance Commission’s (CVC) scanner for their ‘‘private trips’’ abroad. The CVC has expanded its jurisdiction — thanks to a Delhi High Court directive — to keep a tab on government employees going abroad on private visits, and check if they were paying for the trip from their salary.

A terse circular has gone out to the Chief Vigilance Officers posted in all central ministries, departments and undertakings to ‘‘immediately” collect and rush to the CVC, information on the government employees who have made foreign visits in 2003 and 2004.

The circular also makes it clear that the CVC would henceforth be kept informed about the employees taking leave and going abroad. The employees will also have to make a disclosure of the source of funding for such trips. The HC had asked the CVC to furnish details of all government employees who had gone abroad on private visits since January 2003. The proforma in which the CVC has sought information includes details of the countries visited, duration of stay and source of funding for travel and stay abroad.

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The HC decided to order the CVC to ‘‘collect information about government servants going abroad on private visit” and observed that ‘‘possibly a data bank’’ should be maintained on them.

The directive came following the government’s admission that no records were maintained about the officers vacationing abroad once they obtain the leave. The HC was shocked to observe in a case relating to a CFSL Scientist, C.K. Jain — who visited Dubai and Singapore 161 times on private visits without permission — that he was ‘‘never ever questioned by any authority like Customs or Immigration and others.”

The court’s observation came on a petition filed by the scientist who was caught with foreign exchange worth Rs 65 lakh when he was about to board a flight to Dubai from Delhi last year. The Department of Personnel has issued a circular directing department heads to ensure no government employee goes abroad without permission. The circular adds such employees should also provide information relating to his or her previous foreign trips.