Directorate of Vigilance
This Directorate has recently taken following new initiatives:-
1. Monitoring of departmental inquiries and learning from experience of inquiring authorities for systematic improvements in the departments:
Periodical review is carried out with the Inquiring Authorities to monitor progress of departmental inquiries as well as to remove bottlenecks like non-co-operative presenting officers, procedural delays, unreasonable adjournments etc.
The Inquiry Officer on going through the process of presentation by the Department and the defence of the officers, reading and examining the documents and writing exhaustive inquiry reports, acquire considerable knowledge about the working of the Department, irrespective of whether charges are proved or disproved. To codify their experience, it has been decided to obtain from every Inquiry Officer, ‘Experience Note’, which may throw light on the do’s and dont's in the functioning of the Department concerned and practical suggestions for system improvements.
2. Simultaneous departmental action against officers involved in criminal cases:
A good number of officers remain under suspension for unreasonable long period as the investigating agencies conduct the investigation and file Charge sheet and trial progresses. Most of the departments wait for completion of the criminal proceedings. Meanwhile, subsistence allowance is paid to the suspended official. This is not only a wastage but also takes away the deterrent effect of the criminal proceedings initiated against such officials.
A fresh emphasis is now being laid, based on the available instructions of the CVC on the subject, to simultaneously proceed against such officers through departmental action without waiting for the completion of the criminal proceedings.
3. Preventive Vigilance:
Instead of making vigilance and anti-corruption a ‘post-mortem action’ or an exercise in ‘witch-hunting’, the importance is now being given to bring in transparency in the functioning of the public dealing departments. Through the instrument of Right to Information Act and the technology of active websites and in keeping with the approach of greater participation of the citizens through “Bhagidari”, departments are opening up. Culture of secrecy has to be replaced by culture of trust and transparency. Further, in order to sensitize the internal vigilance set up of various departments, periodic review of work done by the Vigilance Officers posted in different departments of Government of NCT of Delhi is undertaken by Director(Vigilance). Suitable instructions/guidance are provided to the Vigilance Officers. This has improved interaction with the Vigilance Officers of all the departments. The Vigilance Officers are called in smaller groups to have detailed discussions even about specific cases and everybody is given a chance to come up with a suggestion /proposal.
The Chief Secretary/ Chief Vigilance Officer, Government of NCT of Delhi reviews work done by the Directorate of Vigilance on the last Thursday of every month.