CHENNAI: At a time when concerns are being raised against its alleged lethargy in cracking down on corruption, the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has registered an 18% increase in the number of investigations it conducted in 2023-24 over the previous year, official data published on its website on Monday indicates.
The state government’s anti-corruption agency has registered a total of 460 investigations in 2023-24, which is an increase from 389 it recorded in 2022-23. This includes three investigations against All India Service Officers (AISO), which was nil in the previous year.
However, this is still the agency’s second-poorest performance in the last decade, according to its own data. Its worst was in FY23, which was a 29.4% drop from FY22, and its best was in 2016-17 when 801 investigations were registered. The third-lowest was 462 in 2013-14, the data show.
DVAC classifies its investigations into Preliminary Enquiry (PE), Detailed Enquiry (DE), Regular Cases (RC) and Traps.
An RC is a case where the FIR is filed after preliminary investigation and complaints. Traps are cases where corrupt government servants are caught red-handed while taking bribes after which DVAC files an FIR.
The number of RC has increased from 117 to 134 in 2023-2024 over the last year, while in case of Traps, it has gone up from 137 to 155 during the same period.
Among the important traps listed by the agency is the case against an official of central agency Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Madurai who was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 20 lakh on December 1, 2023. This was allegedly for not acting against the complainant, DVAC said.
However, the number of RCs is still half of what the agency booked during 2019-20 (261), 2020-21 (286) and 2021-22 (230), said Jayaram Venkatesan, co-convenor of NGO Arappor Iyakkam which recently ran a campaign highlighting DVAC’s alleged inactivity.
DVAC’s data on the number of persons involved in corruption cases department-wise also indicate a 21% increase in 2023-24 as compared to the previous year.
While 1,003 government employees were under the agency’s scanner in 2022-23, the number rose to 1,217 in 2023-24. As was the case with previous years, the rural department tops the chart in this count (271), and local bodies comes second (130).
There has been a significant increase in the number of probe against police officials with the agency recording 67 investigations in 23-24 as compared to 46 last year.
DVAC secured 94 convictions in 2023-24, which is a drop from 105 the previous year.