PANAJI
The vigilance Department, which is the State administration's apex anti-corruption and investigating agency to prosecute government employees for graft, has a dismal success rate -- one conviction, two acquittals and 68 cases stuck at various stages of investigation and prosecution -- over the last five years.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who has often cited his government's intolerance to corruption in the past, said 68 criminal investigations against government employees are currently in progress at the vigilance department.
In a written reply to a query raised by Quepem MLA Altone D'Costa during the just concluded budget session of the Goa legislative assembly, Sawant also said, that in the last five years, a government employee has been "convicted" in just one case.
In two other cases the vigilance department failed to present a water-tight case and the employees went scot free with the court acquitting them.
Sawant also said that in the five year period between 2018 and 2023, the department had registered 23 cases under various sections of corruption laws besides violations of civil service and disciplinary rules against public servants. However, charges have been filed before a court in only 16 of these cases.
To another query from D'Costa, the chief minister's written reply states that the Vigilance department has submitted its final report in 26 cases over the 2018-23 five-year period.
The solitary conviction achieved by the Vigilance department was way back in 2019. More than four years later, however, there is little if anything to show in terms of tangible success for the government's internal battle against corruption.
In the three successive years of 2020, 2021 and 2022, not only has there been no conviction achieved by the department but in two matters, the courts have acquitted one employee each in 2020 and 2022.
With one conviction and two acquittals in the last five years, the record is dismal. Moreover, of the balance 23 cases of this five-year period that are pending, the Vigilance Department has managed to complete investigations and file chargesheets before an appropriate criminal court in just 16 cases.
In the year 2018, nine cases were booked but the Vigilance Department filed chargesheet in just three cases, according to Sawant's written reply. The record improved just a tad the following year with three cases of the seven booked being chhargesheeted. In 2020, the department completed investigations in all the four cases it booked.
Interestingly, there is not a single case chargesheeted in a court in 2022 and this year until March, Sawant's reply reveals.
