NEW DELHI: The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on Friday directed all banks, insurance firms and Central government departments to make sure personnel did not stay in sensitive posts for too long. The most recent direction is a reiteration of its May order instructing these institutions to implement a rotational transfer policy for officers who have been in sensitive posts more than three years.
The CVC’s order is a direct result of the slew of scams and malpractices — not the least of which has been the Rs 13,000 crore one involving jeweller Nirav Modi — that have been brought to light in the recent few years. In most of these cases, there is alleged to have been cooperation from officials in enabling the perpetrators. For instance, in the Nirav Modi-PNB episode, an internal investigation named 54 officers in its report, ranging from top management to clerks, including assistant general managers, deputy general managers and officials from the treasury department. More pertinent is that Gokulnath Shetty, the former deputy manager of PNB Brady House branch, the epicentre of the fraud, was not transferred for seven years.
On Friday, the CVC repeated its observation that rotational transfer policies for officials in such posts would mitigate the probability of such scams occurring. Stating that it was the non-implementation of the rotational policy that has led to many frauds, CVC said, “It is once again reiterated that rotational transfers of officers continuing beyond three years may be strictly carried out from sensitive seats/posts,” adding however, that this advice was for changes from the sensitive seat/post, and not necessarily from the station, which is to be governed by the policy of respective organisations.
“Analysis of frauds that have taken place in public sector banks as well as other organisations shows that one of the reasons for such frauds was non-implementation of the rotational policy,” the CVC stated in its order.It has also asked heads or Chief Vigilance Officers to strictly ensure that the rotational policy is implemented in their respective organisations.