The Hindu : Focus on Secretariat staff, Lokayukta told

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jul 14, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Focus on Secretariat staff, Lokayukta told

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore July 13. The subject committee of the legislature on Home, Transport, and the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR), has recommended that the Lokayukta should first pay attention to end corruption in the Secretariat.

In its report presented to the Assembly, the committee headed by G.N.Nanjundaswami, MLA, noted that there was no case of the Lokayukta exposing corruption among IAS and IPS officers or conducting raids, holding inquiry or recommending punishment against them, as clear from Lokayukta's report for 2002-2003 submitted to the legislature.

Referring to rampant corruption in the Secretariat up to the level of deputy secretary, the report said that in many cases even the direction of the ministers were not taken note of by the staff, not to speak of the letters of the legislators.

Neither the Chief Secretary nor the senior officers questioned why the staff of the Secretariat sought transfers to key departments such as Revenue, Urban Development, Commerce, and Industry. In this background, the Lokayukta should first pay attention to end corruption in the Secretariat.

The committee felt that though the Lokayukta was created with good intention, the excess staff in the office had made it a white elephant. Since there was failure to give effect to its recommendation in cases of corruption and nepotism, the provision of Rs. 12 crore in the Budget for the office of the Lokayukta was meaningless and a burden on the exchequer.

In an earlier part, the report expressed surprise how the DPAR and the Finance Department permitted upgrading 29 posts of sub-inspectors to that of inspectors with the Lokayukta, which according to the Registrar of Lokayukta, involved an expenditure of Rs. 119.75 lakh.

This was wasteful expenditure and contrary to the recommendation of the Administrative Reforms Commission which favoured reduction in staff strength to end wasteful administrative expenditure.

The committee said that normally the Finance Department questioned every proposal on the ground of paucity of funds. The committee also wondered whether the DPAR had pondered over it, or had approved the upgrading of posts deliberately.

The committee, referring to complaint against the staff of the police wing, recommended reduction in the staff of the police and technical wing and posting of only honest and sincere officers in the inquiry wing.

In another recommendation, the committee recommended amendment of the Lokayukta Act to provide for constitution of a special legislature committee to inquire into cases of officers of the Lokayukta whose assets were disproportionate to their known sources of income.

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