Commissions In India

Central Vigilance Commission

One of the high profile governmental bodies of the Indian government, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) works in coordination with the government authorities for the betterment of the system. The main purpose for which this important body had been established was to ensure all sorts of corruptions in government sector could be well prevented and addressed minutely.

About CVC

Central Government of India created CVC in the year 1964 as an important body that could take into account the measures and steps to prevent all the corruptions especially the governmental ones for a better system and governance. It has been working as a statutory body and plays crucial role in this regard. It has already addressed lots of such issues through the steps taken ever since its formation. CVC has been given several power including its status to work independently as a major sovereign body which remains free from any type of control from the authorities.

CVC came into existence after the reports submitted by Committee on Prevention of Corruption whose chairperson Mr. K. Santhanam had suggested for the formation of this Commission. Mr. Nittoor Srinivasa Rau was appointed as first Chief Vigilance Commissioner of India.

Composition of CVC

Recently constituted CVC operates through the appointment of Mr. Pradeep Kumar as Central Vigilance Commissioner and Mr. R Sri Kumar and Mr. J M Garg as the Vigilance Commissioners to consist the Commission team.

Prime Minister of India in the capacity of Chairperson and the Home Minister as the member besides the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha as another member collectively takes decision to recommend the names to the President for the appointment of Central Vigilance Commissioner and Vigilance Commissioners to perform their roles in the CVC with the independent powers.

The President can though remove any of these Commissioners upon receiving the report from the team headed by the Prime Minister to exit any one of them due to misbehavior, misconduct or any issue which turn them unable to continue in their respective roles in the CVC office.

Mandate

CVC had been constituted with mandates which were tangible and too much proactive in nature. The important roles of this independent body are to work as a monitoring agency and to continue with its vigilance role. The Commission is supposed to report to Central Government of India but still remains independent in its steps for investigation or initiating any vigilance roles. Some key mandates which are important and always vital include as the following:-

• Working as an advisory team in any government based organizations for their roles to plan, execute and review steps for betterment
• Guiding for the reforms and to ensure there is thorough vigilance  

 
It should be clearly understood that CVC differs from the CBI as it is not a complete investigating agency. This Commission though involves CBI and other bodies for the assistance purpose. Departmental Chief Vigilance Officers monitor developments while such investigations go on. Chief Technical Officer though can do investigation on behalf of the CVC to examine issues related to the Civil Works or similar such sectors in government offices.

CVC plays key role as far as controlling or watching governmental corruption is concerned. Many investigation steps are taken for that purpose and government officials are not spared in case there is something unrealistic or corruption prevails. This Commission keeps highlighting the cases which it handles through publishing the case lists or those in the pending.

Exclusions

Although CVC is an important and independent body which works are completely investigative in nature but it still has certain limitations. It can’t direct the CBI while starting enquiries. It doesn’t have power to initiate enquiry by its own against an officer in the Joint Secretary or above rank. It is bound to take permission from the departments concerned prior to starting such enquiries.

Recommendation Reports

CVC keeps submitting its annual recommendation reports to the Central and State governments on regular intervals. Such reports mainly concentrate on the issues and factors which have thorough details about the government projects and mainly focuses on the any level of corruption if realized. As a vigilance group CVC keeps an eye on the failures by the system in the governance system and brings that into the notice of the government bodies for fixing the issues.

The reports equally focus on the improvement aspects for which suggestions and guidelines are advised. It guides for the overall development of the departments where there are scopes for improvements. The advisory role mainly concentrates on the improvement in system and ensuring that best of preventive measures are brought into application.

Implementation of Recommendations

CVC keeps submitting its annual recommendation report to the government which is implemented thereafter. As the team of the CVC consisting of Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Vigilance Commissioners and Chief Technical Examiner keep working extensively on the cases and submit reports to government such reports or any sort of recommendations suggested are brought into the implementation phase post thorough discussions. As CVC is an important statutory body whose working is independent it has a big list of the support staff working on multiple cases.

All reports or recommendations which CVC submits to government from its own secretariat are clearly monitored for implementation. By now most of the reports and recommendations having been submitted to government from CVC secretariat have been implemented. Some of them have been reformed and a few are still under review but in general most cases are taken into account seriously as and when they are meant to implement for betterment of system.