Decline in corruption complaints worries Vigilance Commision

Vigilance Commision asks Guj govt to take necessary steps.

Discussing corruption in public and government sector is a common practice but when it comes to complaining or reporting about corruption, people seem to stay at bay.

The latest figures of Vigilance Commission show that the number of complaints regarding corruption and irregularities in government has been gradually declining.

Decline in instances of seeking bribe by public servants has led to fall in corruption complaints and subsequent traps by Anti Corruption Bureau to nab errant public servants.

“The number of traps to nab corrupt public servant has been decreasing since 1999,” says a Vigilance Commission annual report for the year 2007.

Acknowledging the fact that the corruption cases may have dipped after the implementation of Right to Information Act, the commission has asked the home department of Gujarat government and Anti Corruption Bureau to take serious note of the fall in the number of complaints against corruption and take neccessary steps to encourage people to report about corruption in public departments.

Vigilance Commission received 6,319 complaints against corruption in 2007. The number of such complaints in 2005 stood at 8,082.

Out of the total complaints filed during 2007, criminal proceeding was recommended in 37 cases, of which 14 cases were pertaining to Indian Penal Code (IPC) and 23 to ACB.

“Instead of initiating criminal proceeding, the government departments even delayed intimation of such cases to the commission,” the report notes.