Recommendations by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) submitted in 2012 could have averted this year’s Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) scam, which the agency has been asked to probe again.
The CID investigated similar scams alleged in 1995-96, 1996-97 and 2004-2005 and submitted a detailed report. Along the lines of what Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is planning now, the report recommended introduction of a system followed by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) where written exam marks are not revealed to the interview panel.
Further, the report recommended video recording the interview process and reduce marks allotted to viva. “The report recommended it was high time KPSC deployed a modern system of recruitment, similar to what is followed by UPSC. Unlike UPSC, the KPSC has no mechanism to verify documents furnished by candidates and written exam results are announced in public. This allows the chairman and members to manipulate the marks during the viva,’’ an official who was part of the earlier investigation told Express. This report is languishing with the Chief Secretary.
Documents collected in the probe show that eligible candidates who scored high marks in the written exam got surprisingly low marks in the viva.
The CID registered an FIR in 2011 following a High Court direction to probe recruitment illegalities when H N Krishna was the chairman of the commission. After a thorough investigation, the CID submitted the chargesheet before the 8th ACMM with serious charges against the chairman, members and even some candidates.
The chargesheet stated that the accused indulged in various offences, from corruption to blatant violation of recruitment rules during all the three periods.``The probe revealed that the chairman and five other members would share themselves prospective candidates based on caste, (Vokkaliga, SC/ST, Minority), region and such categories. In all, six instances of irregularities were detailed in the chargesheet. All those offences detailed in the chargesheet seem to have been repeated in the recruitment this year,’’ the official added.