THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Earlier this month, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) sleuths started preparing a list of corrupt officers in government departments.
And in less than 30 days, they have found 482 tainted officers eligible for inclusion on the list.
Sources said the officers belong to seven departments, including police, motor vehicles and local-self government.
“Before they launched the exercise, VACB officers had dossiers on around 120 officers, including those caught in corruption cases and those who managed to escape such cases narrowly,” said a source, adding that 482 was just the tip of the iceberg. “The real number would be much higher,” said the source.
VACB director ADGP Manoj Abraham said reports on corrupt officers in 40 more departments are awaited. “The final number will be worryingly high. We just started data collection and included 482 names. With the state having over 40 departments, the list will get much bigger.
By the end of September, data from all the departments will be collected and a report filed before the government,” he said. A VACB sleuth said departments where officers directly interact with the public were selected first.
Names in list to touch four figures: Officer
“There is a perception among people about corruption in certain departments as they interact with officials there regularly. We selected such departments for scrutiny in the initial phase. Details from more high-profile departments such as revenue are yet to be collected. Once those are in, the number of names in the list will easily touch four figures,” said the officer.
The names of tainted officials are being collected as part of VACB’s ‘Corruptionfree Kerala’ project announced earlier. Under the project, the database of corrupt officers will be updated regularly. The wealth amassed by them will also be verified.