Five years on, DVAC remains without a head

Two of the three posts of IGP have remained vacant

The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC), a premium agency of the State, entrusted with the task of tackling corruption in public administration, has remained without a head since 2013.

Of the three posts of Inspector-General of Police, two have remained vacant for close to five years. The agency has a near 40 per cent vacancy in other ranks, which seem to have taken a toll on its performance.

The DVAC is headed by a director in the rank of a Director-General of Police, who is assisted by three Inspector-Generals of Police, a Deputy Inspector-General of Police, and four Superintendents of Police. After the last Director/DGP Satish Kumar Dogra retired in 2013, the post was kept vacant.

Of the three posts of IGP, two has remained vacant in the last five years. Presently G. Venkatraman, IGP and Joint Director, is Director (in-charge) since 2013.

The tasks

One of the primary responsibilities of the DVAC is to gather intelligence for prevention and detection of corruption in public administration.

It deploys its own personnel or gathers information through sources on malpractices, corrupt practices and criminal misconduct of government employees in all departments. Cases go through three stages — the Preliminary Enquiry, Detailed Enquiry and finally Regular Case. To lay trap to public servants demanding bribe from public for doing legal work is another priority work of the agency.

However, owing to the shortage of staff, the number of new cases has come down and the pendency of cases, in terms of investigation, laying charge sheet and trial, has increased.

Going by statistics, the number of trap cases, in which public servants are caught red-handed demanding and accepting bribe money, has dropped from 206 in 2013-14 to 82 in 2015-16. The number of court trials and tribunal enquiries pending is about 2,400 cases while the number of departmental enquiries pending is about 960.