CVC may roll out Integrity Index by January next year

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) expects to roll out the "integrity index" that is being worked out with IIM-Ahmedabad, by January next year, on a pilot basis, CVC K V Chowdary said here today.
Chowdary who participated in the Vigilance Week celebrations by the Income Tax Department said the Commission is suggesting the investigating agencies to use online systems to collect data from banks, Income Tax (I-T) department and Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) among others.
"Integrity Index is to measure what kind of robust process each organisation has and how they are implemented. It is a kind of measure of efficiency and also the performance outcome of the organisation vis-a-vis its services.

"We have designed it in consultation with Indian Institute of Management (IIM). There are about I think five major areas which capture various activities and each activity is given some marks.
"It is not corruption index. It is perception index on how people perceive the organisation. That hopefully we will be able to do sometime by December or January," Chowdary told reporters.
According to him, the index will initially be calculated for 25 organisations, of various categories such as Government Departments and PSUs and bodies like Medical Council of India and later extended to all other organisation.

Replying to a query, he said the number of complaints that the Commission receives on a department, need not necessarily indicate the quality of functioning of that particular department.

"The methodology of computation of disproportionate assets, we have finalised on what kind of procedure to be followed...the data (of various agencies such as stock markets, FIU and Income Tax Department) is leveraged which is available in the soft form.
"These sources are tapped and one nodal agency in each department is identified to supply data (to the investigating agency)," he said about the new initiatives suggested by the CVC in corruption and disproportionate assets cases.
An official release had earlier said Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited, NTPC Ltd, Eastern Coalfields, Western Coalfields, Steel Authority of India Limited, Punjab National Bank, Syndicate Bank, National Highways Authority of India and Railways Ministry, among others are selected for the Integrity Index.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL), Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), South MCD, Food Corporation of India (FCI) and National Mineral Development Corporation are also among the initially selected organisations.