THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As many as 13,435 tip-offs were received by the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau (VACB) last year on corruption among government officials and public servants and their way of doing things. As per the data accessed from VACB, the tip-offs/petitions were received via e-mail and WhatsApp and helped the anti-graft agency mount a better offensive against institutionalised corruption.
The volume of information shared by the public was so enormous that it helped the agency nab 42 government employees in trap operations while they were receiving bribes. In terms of the volume of tip-offs received and the number of successful trap operations, 2022 proved to be a landmark year.
The agency in 2020 and 2021 received 763 and 1,147 tip-offs, respectively.
Vigilance Director ADGP Manoj Abraham said, "the rise in the number of tip-offs was due to the aggressive drive adopted by the agency against corruption. It’s also clear evidence of the confidence the public has in the VACB,” he said.
It was based on several of the inputs that the agency managed to pin down 42 corrupt government officers. Sources said most of the tip-offs were specific and that helped the agency to plan the next course of action.
“We had nabbed an officer in a trap operation, who had demanded a new shirt and sexual favour from a person. The demand was made in return for doing a service that the officer was entitled to do. It was because of the precise tip-off that the culprit was caught red-handed,” said the source.
In 2022, the most number of employees arrested in trap operations was from the revenue department (14), followed by the local self-government department (13). Officials from health, registration, KWA, police, legal metrology, and mining and irrigation departments were also nabbed during the period.
A senior official with the VACB said tip-offs also gave an idea to the officers on the sort of actions that ought to be taken against erring public servants.
Some of the special drives were designed solely on the basis of tip-offs and the information proved to be precise and vital.“At times even individual information was so specific and clear that we could take action on its basis. In certain other cases, we stranded together information that was being conveyed to us. From that information we got a real picture about the corruption, the people involved as well as the manner in which it was done,” the officer said.
The officer added that corrupt public servants were caught in the act in canteens, roadside eateries, operation theatres and even in police stations and that was possible only because of the information that was fed by the public.
The confidence, the Vigilance sleuths said, that people have in the agency was evident as 1,105 pieces of information were received by the VACB in January 2022 alone.