Railways the most corrupt dept-CVC

Railways the most corrupt govt department: CVC data

By Aman Sharma, ET Bureau | 6 May, 2013,

The watchdog’s annual report for 2011 says it received 8,805 complaints against as many railway officials, compared with 8,330 in the previous year.

NEW DELHI: The Central Vigilance Commission, taking note of the overwhelming number of corruption cases against railway employees, had asked the railway ministry to speed up action against erring senior officials, documents reviewed by ET show.

The watchdog's annual report for 2011 says it received 8,805 complaints against as many railway officials, compared with 8,330 in the previous year, sharpening the spotlight on a government department that is already reeling from a bribery scandal.

Documents accessed by ET under RTI show that the overwhelming number of complaints prompted CVC Pradeep Kumar to ask the railway ministry to fix accountability of their senior officers. "Since the number of composite cases in the railways is high, CVC emphasised that senior officers may not be spared in case irregularities are established against them," the minutes of Kumar's meeting with the ministry last year say.

The CVC report says that of the 772 railway officials who faced penal action in 2011, 31 were prosecuted for corruption while the rest faced compulsory retirement, dismissal, or cut in increment, or were denied promotion. In 2010, the department had taken action against 911 erring officials. Railways also tops the watchdog's list for the highest number of officials in any single department against whom action was taken for impropriety or corruption. Citing delay in processing vigilance cases as a major problem, the report says the ministry failed to take action against 191 officials for over six months despite the CVC's advice to do so.

"CVC pointed out the huge pendency in ministry of railways in implementation of CVC's advice to act on complaints and also delays in completing regular departmental action cases. CVC further desired that efforts should be made to ensure that cases more than two years old are finalised at the earliest," the minutes of the review meeting say.