Lack of manpower hits CVC's anti-corruption helpline

New Delhi, June 17, 2012 : Tired of calling the Central
Vigilance Commission's anti-corruption helpline and getting no
response?
Believe it or not, the country's premier anti-corruption
watchdog is grappling with increasing complaints of
"no-response" from the anti-corruption call centre set up to
register corruption complaints in central government
departments.
Official sources said the probity watchdog does not have
dedicated manpower to man the helpline, causing trouble to
aggrieved callers.
In order to take a step forward in its fight against
corruption, the CVC had in 2010 constituted the helpline to
assist people and register graft cases.
It has a dedicated toll free number 1800-11-0180 and a
helpline number 011-24651000 which are functional from Monday
to Friday between 9 AM and 7 PM.
Besides this, the CVC had last year announced another
24x7 helpline --1964-- to deal with corruption complaints.
After a lot of technical and managerial glitches, the number
has been made operational but there is insufficient staff to
attend calls.
The number, 1964, assumes significance as the CVC was set
up in February 1964 by the government.
"There have been increasing instances where callers are
unable to get through the anti-corruption helpline or receive
any response. It is mainly due to lack of manpower. In fact,
the staff answering queries or registering complaints are not
properly trained or permanent," a senior CVC official said,
requesting anonymity.
Repeated calls made to all the three anti-corruption
helplines of the CVC during weekdays did not yield any
response.
Officials said a proposal to have a full-fledged call
centre with people trained in handling such calls is pending
administrative approval within the Commission.
     There were no comments on the issue from senior CVC
officials authorised to talk to the media. Calls made to CVC
Secretary K D Tripathi, who also acts as spokesperson, too
went unanswered.
"The Commission is aware of the issue and has called for
a feasibility study to set up a call centre and resolve all
other issues. It is likely to be done by Telecommunications
Consultants India Ltd, a government of India's Public Sector
Enterprise," a source said.
In a related development, a Parliamentary Standing
Committee had recently expressed concern over the "acute
shortage" of manpower in the anti-corruption watchdog.
"The Committee took serious note of the acute shortage of
manpower in the CVC particularly... The Committee hopes that
CVC will prioritise the filling up of vacant positions in a
phased manner," it had recommended.
The CVC is a statutory body empowered to inquire or cause
an inquiry or investigation on a reference made by the Central
Government. It is also empowered to exercise superintendence
over the vigilance administration of the various central
government ministries, departments and organisations including
the CBI.
     Many sensational cases of graft, including the Commonwealth Games scam,
are being investigated by the CVC.