Govt puts in place new policy for streamlining vigilance clearance

Friday, 07/09/2012

http://epaper.dailypostindia.com/Details.aspx?id=47310&boxid=58602&uid=&dat=2012-09-07

Chandigarh : In a bid to streamline the process of getting vigilance clearance for retiring employees or those seeking promotions, Punjab government has introduced a new policy under which Vigilance Bureau (VB) would prepare a department-wise negative list of the employees involved in any vigilance enquiry or against whom FIR has been registered.

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal cleared the proposal mooted by the Vigilance Department based on the recommendations of a three-member committee, comprising Secretary Personnel Anirudh Tiwari, Special Secretary Vigilance Arun Sekhri and Additional Legal Remembrancer (ALR) BR Garg.

CM directed the Vigilance department to implement this policy expeditiously to prevent the employees from inconvenience caused due to inordinate delay in seeking vigilance clearance certificate. According to the new policy, the VB would supply a department-wise negative list of the government employees against whom FIR had been registered at any point of time. 

The VB would be required to update this list after every fortnight for sending it to the respective administrative departments through the Vigilance department. The copy of this list would also be forwarded to the Administrative Secretary of the concerned department for information and the necessary action. In between the period of these 15 days, the VB would inform the administrative department regarding any significant development about the government employee of their department against whom FIR was lodged.

Under the new policy, the employee seeking vigilance clearance for retirement or promotion would have to submit a self-declaration regarding his involvement or non-involvement in any case. After receiving the declaration, Head of the Department of concerned employee would check the negative and the updated lists provided by the VB and decide the case at his level if the name of employee does not figure in the negative list. However, if the name of the employee figures in the negative list then the HoD would refer the case to VB for getting the latest status before taking any final decision regarding the employee.

The new policy stipulates a response time of 10 days, which include four days for the Vigilance department and six days for the VB, for processing and sending reply to the administrative department. However, if no reply is sent to the administrative department then it would be presumed that no case was pending against the concerned employee, the responsibility of which would be fully that of the VB.

VB would also upload the negative list of the employees and update it on daily basis on its under construction website having limited accessibility, mainly comprising of the CVOs of the various departments. The new policy would end the present system, which makes it mandatory for the concerned administrative departments to send the cases for getting pension clearance certificate for the retiring government employees to the Vigilance department one year prior to the date of retirement.

Since it was a long drawn process which consumed a lot of time and energy, all the retiring employees of the state government along with those seeking promotion had to face a plethora of problems while seeking the vigilance clearance certificate from the VB.

Realising the hardships faced by employees and to ensure minimal inconvenience to them on this count, the state government has taken this initiative in continuance of its endeavour to pursue its flagship programme of Governance Reforms.