CIC seeks details of funds misused by Indian envoy

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Ministry of External Affairs to disclose all details pertaining to the inquiry into alleged misuse of government fund between 2005-06 by the then Ambassador to Turkey.

The details of the case, closed by the Central Vigilance Officer of the department saying it may have been procedural error but without any financial loss to the government, were sought by one Balendra Kumar under RTI Act. The information was denied by the ministry citing the clause of the Act which exempts personal information, which has no relationship to any public activity or interest, or which could cause unwarranted invasion of privacy of the individual, from disclosure.

"There is no merit in denial of information as 'personal information' while invoking section 8 (1)(j) of the RTI Act, since public interest far outweighs any harm done to protected interests," held Information Commissioner Annapurna Dixit.  The case relates to a complaint made to Central Vigilance Commission under Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Informers (PIDPI), disclosing incidents of alleged misuse of government funds and corruption at the Embassy. During the period-- 2005-06-- mentioned in the complaint Chitra Narayanan was posted as the Ambassador in Turkey.

The complaint was forwarded by CVC to the Central Vigilance Officer of MEA who did not find merit in the complaint and closed it. Balendra Kumar contended before the CIC that he has "ample evidence" to prove that no proper investigations were made and an attempt was made to protect alleged higher officer(s) by the the department.

"In the complaint filed before CVC it was alleged that the then Ambassador took home leave...But did not disclose the fact to the office that her only entitled family member was not left behind during her home leave period...By this misrepresentation higher rate of allowance was paid to the officer," Kumar said in his plea. He added that practice was repeated previous year also when the officer availed the emergency leave. Kumar said a total misappropriation of Rs 1.40 lakh was done.

"The CVO concluded this was inadvertent and unintentional and overpaid amount had been deposited into government account...The recovery to the tune of more than 1.5 lakhs was affected by the lodging of the complaint and not because audit pointing it out as informed by the CVO to CVC," Kumar said in his plea.

Kumar further said the information was in public interest as the money involved belongs to citizens of India and they have every right to know how their money is spent. "While transparency promotes accountability and provides information for citizens about what the public authority is doing, including efficient spending of public money and making all decisions in the open and on record," Dixit held directing the ministry to provide information by June 15.