Chennai, Dec 27 (PTI) Tamil Nadu’s anti corruption agency, in the news recently for its run-ins with the centre-run Enforcement Directorate, has underperformed this year by its own admission. There is a nearly 30 per cent drop in the number of cases registered by the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption in 2022-23 compared to the previous year, latest statistics show.
According to the numbers posted by DVAC on their website, 389 enquiries and investigations were recorded in 2022-23, as compared to 551 in 2021-22, a decrease of 29.4 per cent.
This is also the lowest figure recorded by DVAC since 2013-14, the earliest year for which it has published its performance data. The previous lowest was 462 in 2013-14. The agency recorded 801 probes in 2016-17.
The agency classifies its enquiries and investigations into Preliminary Enquiries (PE), Detailed Enquiries (DE), Regular Cases (RC) and Traps.
RC and Traps are cases where the agency files a First Information Report (FIR).
There has been a drop in numbers under all heads, except Traps, over the past year.
While the number of Regular Cases (RCs) has almost halved from 230 to 117, the PEs and DEs have reduced from 129 to 100 and 72 to 35, respectively, from 2021-22 to 2022-23.
The number of Trap cases, where government employees are caught red-handed while accepting bribes, has increased from 120 in 2021-22 to 137 in 2022-23.
Meanwhile, the number of TN government staff under investigation for corruption cases also reduced in 2022-23, when compared to 2021-22. While 1,530 government employees were investigated by the agency in 2021-22, it reduced to 1,003 in 2022-23.
A senior official of the DVAC declined comment when asked about the reasons for this decrease. However, other sources in the agency attributed the drop to procedural delays.
“For booking Regular Cases (RC) against a state government employee, we need approval from their department head as per Section 17(a) of the amended Prevention of Corruption Act. This is one of the reasons for the drop in number of RCs,” a source said, adding that such an approval was not needed for Traps and hence there was an increase on that count.
Jayaram Venkatesan, Convenor of Chennai-based NGO Arappor Iyakkam which regularly files complaints with the DVAC, said that the numbers were an indication of greater interference by the government in probing corruption cases.
“If the number of RCs have reduced by half, then it shows that approvals under Section 17(a) have reduced in the past one year,” he said. PTI SDP ANE
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