NEW DELHI: The Union government, which dismissed 12 senior income tax officers recently for corruption and personal misconduct, is set to act against other tainted bureaucrats in the coming days. Sources said last Monday’s action was just the beginning and added that a crackdown was likely against corrupt officers from other ministries and government departments.
Officials said that nearly two dozen IAS and IPS officers are under the scanner because of corruption. The Centre has granted sanction for prosecution against17 IAS officers in 23 cases since January 2015, and against three IPS officers.A senior official said the vigilance heads in the various ministries and departments have been asked to expedite the process of identifying officers for compulsory retirement. This will be done under Fundamental Rule 56(j) of Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972.
While the rule provides for compulsory retirement of government staff in public interest, it has rarely been used earlier. The performance of officers who have turned 50 or 55, or have completed 30 years of service (whichever is earlier) is being reviewed to ascertain if they are liable for compulsory retirement.
This rule to punish non-performers was revisited after the first Narendra Modi government came to power in May 2014. During September 2015, a DoPT office memorandum on “Strengthening of administration-Periodical review under FR 56(j) and Rule 48 of CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972” said, “While considering integrity of an employee, actions or decisions taken by the employee which do not appear to be above board, complaints received against him, or suspicious property transactions, for which there may not be sufficient evidence to initiate departmental proceedings, may be taken into account.”
Tainted officials on radar
Central Government has granted sanction for prosecution against 17 IAS officers in 23 cases since January 2015
3 IPS officer have also been given sanction for prosecution
104 cases against 165 officers of Civil Services have been registered by CBI during the years 2015-2018
1,767 corruption cases have been registered against 4123 public servants during last three years