HYDERABAD: Apart from the revenue and home departments, the Department of School Education is also emerging as a lead contender when it comes to corruption among the government officials. In the last year alone, as many as 40 cases of corruption in the department were noted by the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) and vigilance and enforcement (V&E) departments in the State.
A majority of the cases noted by ACB and V&E are referred to the State Vigilance Commission (SVC) for advise on corrective action, and then subsequently referred back to the department for the action to be initiated. “In school education, the regional director or officers of director ranks are monitored by the V&E department officials.
The officials are picked up for corruption if they collect more fees, allow a school’s classrooms to have more than 60 students, or have no playground,” explained M Padmanabha Reddy, secretary of the Forum for Good Governance (FGG). The number of corruption cases referred by the V&E to the SVC for the period of January and March 2019 is the highest in comparison to the other three quarters. The number in the fourth quarter stood at 14, while that of the first quarter of April and June 2018 was 6.