The Hindu: New Delhi: Thursday, June 07, 2018.
Delhi’s
Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) has in the last three years become a shell of what
it was envisioned as, a Right to Information (RTI) reply received from the
anti-corruption unit has revealed.
Data provided
in the RTI reply revealed that there was hardly any aspect of the core
functions of the ACB that did not register a stark reduction till March 31 this
year. When compared with its current average arrest rate, the ACB was catching
more alleged corrupt public servants a decade ago than it is now.
From manpower
to the number of complaints received, to their conversion into preliminary
enquiries (PEs) and/ or FIRs, in addition to the number of allegedly tainted
government officials arrested by it for graft, all showed a decline.
A senior
serving official in the anti-graft unit justified the dip citing its “modified
role and responsibilities” between mid-2014 and 2015.
A senior
police officer, who formerly served in the unit, said the ACB was now
exhibiting the “brunt of having its wings clipped by the Ministry of Home
Affairs over the years”.
Of the 837
complaints registered for enquiry by it between January 1, 2015 and March 31,
2018, the ACB registered PEs in 6.81% or 57 complaints. Cases were registered
in only 7.05% or 59 cases and the unit arrested only 49 government servants,
according to the RTI reply.
Data
available on the ACB’s website showed that the anti-graft unit, as per a
three-year average between 2006 and 2008, had an arrest rate of 100 persons per
year.
From January
1, 2015, to March 31 this year, the figure reduced to around 12.
The ACB did
not make a single arrest either in 2017 nor till March 31 this year.
Against a
sanctioned strength of 119, the ACB has only 78 personnel and is functioning
with 65% manpower, said the RTI reply. Most vacancies, a former official posted
in the unit said, existed at posts traditionally associated with investigative
duties such as Assistant Commissioner of Police (only two out of nine posts
filled), Inspectors (20 out of 30 posts filled) and Sub-Inspectors (13 of 27
posts filled).
“The dip in
manpower is mainly because more administrative, or paper-related, work is now
undertaken at the unit instead of investigation. That is why space has been
created for more Assistant Sub-Inspectors than ACPs and vacancies are allowed
to fester in ranks such as Inspectors and Sub-Inspectors,” said a former
official who served at the unit.
The unit’s
public connect, which was at its peak in 2015 when its anti-corruption helpline
number 1031 debuted, too has dwindled.
The number of
complaints received on 1031, in addition to another helpline number which was
launched before its predecessor was shut down, fell from a combined figure of
709 in 2015 to 33 in 2016 and just two in 2017.
No calls have
been received till March 31 this year.
“The helpline
began dying a slow death as soon as a parallel one was launched to counter it
and no action was taken on the complaints already registered on it,” the
officer added.
In April
1975, the ACB was created as a police station with jurisdiction “all over the
National Capital Territory of Delhi” and mandated with the investigation of
offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act (1988).
In addition
to the power to conduct “enquiries against public servants of the Delhi
government and departments under the L-G”, the ACB, till mid-2015, had the
power to probe graft complaints against officials posted in departments such as
the Delhi Police and the DDA, if the instances of alleged graft unfolded within
the borders of the Capital.
New
directives by MHA
From mid-2014
to 2015, however, back-to-back directives by the MHA curtailed its ambit and
power to investigate graft complaints against officials employed by the Central
government.
“The dip in
manpower, complaints and PEs, cases and arrests is because the ACB is no longer
investigating Union government employees and is a logical result given its new
brief. A reduction in the number of departments it can have under its scanner
will obviously lead to fewer complaints and the action taken on these,” the ACB
official added.