PANAJI
Twenty-one officials and staff from the jail administration department ” Inspectorate General of Prisons ” are facing inquiries into allegations of corruption and indiscipline, including one official who is under the radar of the Vigilance Department.
Information furnished by the government to the Goa Legislative Assembly during the recent monsoon session shows that in all, 79 inquiries are currently in progress against government servants, mostly for graft charges.
Twenty-seven of these inquiries are of a more serious nature and are being conducted under the aegis of the Vigilance Department. Of these inquiries being conducted by the Vigilance Department, officials of the Revenue Department and the Directorate of Health Services account for the most, five and four respectively.
Employees of the Prisons administration and the Excise Department, on the other hand, account for the maximum inquiries being conducted departmentally. While 21 officials from the Prisons administration are being probed departmentally, the Excise Department has 16 of its officials under investigation.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who furnished this information in a written reply to a query tabled by AAP’s Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas, said the Vigilance Department is enforcing a 2017 circular which stipulates that Inquiry Officers (IOs) must complete the inquiries within six months. Sawant said letters are also regularly sent to the IOs for submitting monthly status reports of their inquiries.
The Chief Minister also said that meetings of the IOs are held, chaired by the Chief Secretary, to review pendency, where instructions are issued for the timely completion of the inquiries.
