VIGILANCE FROM WITHIN:

PUBLIC SERVANTS REFORMING

GOVERNMENT
By SANJIV CHATURVEDI
2015 Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Emergent Leadership
Presented at the 57th Ramon Magsaysay Awards Lecture Series
1 September 2015, Manila, Philippines

Let me begin with this quotation from our Vigilance Manual:

If You Think You Are Too Small An Entity To Play Any Role In The
Fight Against Corruption, Think Of The Potential Of An Atom.
After completion of my engineering studies, I joined the civil service. In
our country, the civil service is a permanent part of the executive branch.
It is given a considerable degree of freedom to operate and to bring
meaningful changes into the lives of a large number of people. Among
the civil service, the most important is the All India Services which was
created under article 312 of the Indian Constitution to serve both state
government and central government. This is the only service that has a
constitutional backing and the constitution provides a very strong
framework for its protection in the due discharge of its duties. There are
three branches of All India Services Indian Administrative Service
(IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Forest Service (IFS).
Among them, the officers of these three services occupy all the strategic
positions in the different states.

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I was selected to work in Indian Forest Service (IFS) and was assigned
in a cadre state called Haryana in 2002. I underwent a series of training
which included extensive field visits of the entire country including
various eco-systems, and interaction with people. I formally started work
in my assignment on August 2005.
Corruption Case #1:
Haryana is a state which has one of the lowest forest covers in the
country and therefore there were two challengesto protect whatever
forest wealth is left and to create new forest areas through afforestation.
In our country, the environment, forest and wildlife legislations are very
strict, being criminal in nature but the challenge lies in their
implementation. The first challenge was encountered in case of
Saraswati Wildlife Sanctuary which was the largest protected area of the
state. The area was under threat because of an impending canal project.
Certain unscrupulous contractors were involved in large scale cutting of
trees and poaching of a rare species of hog deer. With the support of
field staff and local people, cases were registered under the provisions of
the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
The media also highlighted the issues. Finally, the central committee
appointed by the Honorable Supreme Court of India had to intervene.
After a detailed hearing, it was decided that the state government had
committed a violation. It was fined ten million rupees or one crore
(equivalent to 155,500.00 US$ at the exchange rate of 1 INR =
0.0155515 US$) in view of the damages inflicted upon the sanctuary.
The money was then used for conservation work in the protected area.
This case is a good example of how a sanctuary can be protected with
involvement of all the stakeholders including forest officials, local
people, NGO, and media. The case had setup a strong precedent that
after the orders of CEC in July 2008, no similar case been reported in
any of the protected areas of the state.

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Corruption Case #2:

In view of limited forest cover, certain environmental and social
problems were emerging in the state. These included receding levels of
ground water, expansion of desert, air pollution and also livelihood
issues. To counter these problems, large scale reforestation projects were
undertaken with the cooperation of international funding agencies and
the central government. While undertaking afforestation, checking fake
plantations is always a challenge. One such case
I encountered was during my posting in Jhajjar district in 2009. This was
an arid area, having low levels of ground water. Since the forest cover in
Jhajjar was very low, a large scale reforestation project funded by JICA
(Japanese International Cooperation Agency) was launched. The project
had two components (i) Afforestation works; and (ii) Formation of
women self-help groups. The basic philosophy of this project was to
reduce dependence of poor families on forest resources by increasing
their income level.
The project was not only important for environmental purposes but it
was also instrumental in creating employment for poor workers.
However, the problem was that because of the greed of certain
unscrupulous elements within the forest department, actual tree
plantation on the ground did not take place and proper wages were not
paid. After joining the office, I spearheaded a comprehensive inspection
of the area which involved hundreds of plantation sites where trees were
claimed to have been planted and payment of wages to the workers were
made.
The results of the inspections were startling, there were large scale
bogus plantations and workers were not properly paid their wages.
Because of this, there was considerable unrest among the workers and
they held demonstrations. It was also revealed that some of the money
deposited in the accounts of self-help groups were withdrawn in a

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fraudulent manner. In this particular case, around forty field officials of

various levels were suspended and departmental charge sheets were
issued to them. After the successful conclusion of the departmental
proceedings, large-scale recoveries were ordered and affected from the
salaries of concerned forest officials. The money was deposited back
into the accounts of self-help groups. This was one of largest corruption
scams in the history of state wherein action was successfully taken
against officials and the amount stolen was recovered.
Meanwhile, on the basis of detailed reports from my office, the matter
was examined by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which also
recommended a criminal investigation. Presently the matter is under
consideration of the Supreme Court on my petition. Again in this case as
well, large scale actions and strict measures had a deterrent effect. Also,
the department became very alert to ensure that such scams are not
replicated in the future and afforestation projects are implemented
properly.
Corruption Case #3
Apart from the abovementioned major issues of afforestation and
protection, I also encountered corruption cases of powerful vested
interests during my posting in Fatehabad and Hisar. I came across a
corruption case wherein a government funded herbal park was being
constructed on a private property of an influential individual. These
herbal parks were supposed to be created for the general public to create
awareness among them. But this goal will not be possible because the
park is on private land. I was able to stop this illegal activity but
afterwards faced suspension from the service and false police and
vigilance cases. However, after the matter was picked up by media, a
prominent NGO filed a case before the Supreme Court. After the
issuance of notice in the case, the government declared the area as a
protected forest and transferred its management to the forest department.

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This was again a significant victory, resulting from the efforts of various
stakeholders.
My next assignment was in the healthcare sector on central deputation as
officers of all India Service are required to work in both center and state
governments. However, the first thing I did immediately after joining
was to file a criminal writ petition before the supreme court of India for
criminal investigation by the CBI of all the scams I had exposed in
Haryana. This is to fix individual responsibility and prevent the
recurrence of such cases. Generally, such cases are not entertained by
court directly, but in this case, the matter was admitted and the notices
were issued to central government, state government, and CBI. Presently
the matter is subjudice.
The institute where I was posted was the premier health institute of the
country which was established as an autonomous organization by a
parliamentary Act in 1956. It is a huge organization where around ten
thousand permanent staff and four thousand contractual staff are
working. It has a budget of thousands of crores of rupees and is visited
on a daily basis by around eight to ten thousand patients. I was
designated as the Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the institute. Again
in a classic example of resilience of our democratic setup, even before
my arrival, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family
Welfare had taken a written commitment from the union health secretary
for assigning me the position of CVO. This acted as a very strong
safeguard.
Corruption Case # 4
The problems handled by the CVO in this place are numerous although
they have limited staff. The most prominent case I encountered at the
beginning was the supply of dubious medicines from a private drugstore
that opened in the institute. The owners were able to operate in the
hospital despite the fact that some of their staff were previously caught

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in the capital selling fake drugs by the police. There were complaints by
poor patients about the side effects of the medicines sold by the shop.
Apart from this, other conditions of MoU with the Institute were being
violated by the said shop owner. Senior faculty members recommended
action against the said owner but he had very influential links. As soon
as I issued notices to him, there were moves to shift me to another
department. Then the parliamentary committee intervened in the case.
The violations of the said drugstore were documented in a professional
manner and finally, the institute ordered eviction of the shop. The owner
filed two cases to prevent the eviction but these were dismissed by the
high court. The performance guarantee of the said shop owner
amounting fifty lakh (five million rupees or 77, 274 US$ at the exchange
rate of 1 INR = 0.0155515 US$) was forfeited and transferred to the
institute account. The fund was then allocated to be spent for the welfare
of the patients. A new shop owned by a public sector unit was opened in
the institute to supply free generic medicines to the patients. The
pharmacy had a large centrally air-conditioned hall, proper sitting
arrangements and a token system to ensure that patients are served with
dignity. Clear cut instructions were issued to the doctors to prescribe
generic medicines only as per instructions of Medical Council of India.
To strengthen vigilance administration, an employee database was
created in the institute. This contains information about employee assets,
pending cases, and previous punishments. A system of Officers of
Doubtful Integrity (ODI) was also created so as to keep them away from
sensitive postings. Through this database, a regular check was also
ensured on status of immovable assets of institute employees and in
many suspect cases, thorough investigation was carried out about known
sources of income, value of these properties and discrepancies therein.
Based on these inquiries, cases were also sent for criminal investigation
to CBI. An elaborate proposal was prepared for rotational transfer of the
officials posted in the same place for a long period, to prevent

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development of vested interests.

Proper supervision was also ensured to check various malpractices in the
procurement methods including purchases through single bid tender and
use of dubious propriety certificates. To check the misuse of propriety
certificates it was made mandatory to first upload the item on the
website of the institute for a period of thirty days so that other
manufacturers could also submit their claims. Even after that, whenever
any such misuse was found, prompt and stringent action was taken
against guilty officials. With this dual approach, questionable practices
in the purchasing of goods were minimised. Similarly, in case of
purchase through single bid tenders, clear cut instructions were issued to
make broad base tender specifications and ensure widest possible
circulation of the tender items. To check any favouritism in supplies,
elaborate proforma were designed in which reports were sought on
monthly basis, having complete details of suppliers and procedure
adopted. This further reduced the scope of this malpractice.
Another very serious problem encountered in the institute was that of
frequent absenteeism of Group-C Employees particularly sanitary and
hospital attendants. Their absence had a very critical impact on health
and wellbeing of the patients coming in the institute, as being a tertiary
healthcare centre, patients are brought in with serious conditions and
negligence at any stage can cost their lives. The problem of absenteeism
was common in the institute and there were not enough enquiry officers
to impose the sanctions. As a result, there was a long pendency of cases
with belated and diluted punishments.
Our constitution provides a very creative solution to such problem, by
giving power to do away with all the formalities of disciplinary
proceedings provided reasons are clear and recorded in writing by the
disciplinary authority. So in this case, taking a cue from this
constitutional provision, a strict circular was issued to all the employees

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warning them against any type of absenteeism. After that, in all the
cases, the formalities of disciplinary proceedings which are very
complicated and time consuming was eliminated. Cases were decided
expeditiously on the basis of the response of the absentee employees to
show cause notice. The result was that adequate punishments were
expeditiously imposed and since the principle of natural justice was
complied with, and reasons were recorded, no such employee could get
any relief from the court of law. This had strong deterrent impact on
absentee employees and their attendance improved significantly.
Another problem was exploitation of contractual workers who were
being underpaid or not paid on time. Their other statutory benefits in
terms of provident fund and EIS money was either not being sent to their
account or being embezzled by service providers. To tackle this
problem, consultations and meetings were held with these workers and
creative solutions were obtained from them. On the basis of their
suggestions, a system of issuing a detailed bilingual salary slip to
contractual employees containing all the details of wages and statutory
benefits was initiated along with opening bank accounts for them. Also,
representatives were appointed on behalf of the institute in each segment
to monitor and report back to the vigilance division the veracity of these
slips and payments. This brought a sense of relief to thousands of
contractual workers in the institute.
Challenges and adversities:
During all these years, I faced adverse reactions including frequent
transfers, long periods of not having a proper posting, suspension,
fabricated departmental and police cases. Even my Annual Performance
Appraisal Report (APAR) was abruptly downgraded to zero to finish my
career. However, in our system, there were safeguards, checks and
balances to counter such situations. In my case, after robust
documentation and forceful pleadings, the central government

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intervened for a record number of four times in the form of presidential

orders to revoke adverse orders of the state government. Similarly, the
judiciary also provided an effective bulwark against arbitrary postings.
In all these proceedings, the Transparency Act of India played a very
important role not only in the prosecution of offenders but also in
protecting my own career. It helped in connecting the dots in proving my
case before the central government and other courts. In our federal setup,
the central government is the ultimate custodian of the bonafide interest
of All India Service officers. The very subject of All India Services is
inserted in the union list of the constitution. However, in my case, these
extraordinary powers were exercised so frequently and in such a
decisive manner. It sent a very positive message across the country to all
honest and sincere civil servants.
During my tenure, successful action was completed in around two
hundred cases which was a record in the history of the institute. In
seventy eight cases, punishments were imposed and eighty seven charge
sheets were issued. Apart from this, twenty cases were referred to
CBI/CVC for criminal investigation. These cases involved officers and
faculty members much senior to me and having considerable clout, but
none of the employees could get any relief in the court of law. I also
learned from my experience that in order to punish and get rid of corrupt
government employees, departmental proceedings is a better tool
compared to criminal proceedings because the former requires only
preponderance of probability to prove the misconduct while the later
requires proof beyond reasonable doubt to convict the offender.
In our country the democratic culture is enshrined very deeply.
Fortunately, we have a sizable majority of our population in the young
age group of fifteen-to-thirty-five-year-olds. This generation is very
impatient to bring out a transparent, equitable and fair system. Their
anger against corruption was evident in the anti-corruption movement of
2011 and was further witnessed in the recently held Lok Sabha elections

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and Delhi assembly elections. I fervently hope that with such a popular
pressure, the problem of corruption will be controlled and eradicated
from our country. Let me conclude with the quotation of Swami
Vivekanand, one of Indias most inspiring human beings and is widely
credited with revitalizing Indian nationalism and the Hindu way of life,
with the guidance of his Guru, the mystic Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.:
To quote him: Unselfishness is more paying, only people have not the
patience to practice it.

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