Recruit 'swachh' officers in probe agencies: Cabinet Secretary

Officers who are "swachh" and whose integrity are above board need to be selected to work in investigating agencies like CBI and ED, Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha said today.

Giving a pep talk to Chief Vigilance Officers (CVOs)--who act as distant arm of Central Vigilance Commission to check corruption in various government organisations, he also emphasised on quick decision making by bureaucrats and on the need to check harassment of any bonafide decisions made by them.

Sinha said the officers and personnel who man vigilance organisations and investigative agencies need to be very carefully selected.

"We often hear of complaints even in these organisations, unless you go meet them (officers) or unless you go and meet them several times, things do not happen. That is something that should never happen.

"Nobody should ever be able to require to come here (CVC) and explain. And so the selection of officers have to be swachh (clean)," said the country's top bureaucrat, who heads various selection and search panel for high level appointments.

His views assumes significance as the role of two former CBI Directors A P Singh and Ranjit Sinha had come under criticism for alleged impropriety.

Giving a lecture on "vigilance as a tool for good governance", the Cabinet Secretary said those in the selection process should select people with the varied experience because that will help them in evaluating various kind of complaints in different sectors.

Asserting that India is fastest growing economy after China, Sinha said in such a phase "the public servants are called upon to take quick decisions which can some time be questioned".

"It is in this context that it very important that legitimate and bonafide decisions are protected. Otherwise we keep hearing the word policy paralysis. We were suffering from that some time ago but if the country has to leap frog, the country has to develop at this rate decisions have to be taken," the officer said.
He said an environment need to be created where the

legitimate and bonafide decisions are protected.

"For that it is important that in vigilance organisation such as this (CVC) and its various organisations spread across the country, there is a need for capacity building and training," Sinha said.

The Cabinet Secretary said it is important that vigilance organisations have experts form various fields so that they are able to evaluate the complaints.

"We all know for sure that there are a number of officers who we all know are dishonest or their integrity is suspect. We can all name some officers from our respective batches our respective cadres, our respective organisations. Everybody knows. Whole world knows. But he has the vigilance clearance. How did this happen? Obviously there is some failing in the system," he said.

Sinha said the dishonest officers are having vigilance clearance and the government is in fix at a time of processing them for empanelment of for promotions.

"How do you differentiate between good and bad. The honest ones and not so honest. So obviously there is something more that is required and we need to reflect on that so that we are able to separate the honest and the not so honest ones," he said.

Sinha said organisations prone to corruption or those having higher number of complaints need to develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to check temptations.