65.Vigilance and Anti-corruption drive in NITC

 New  Director  had  taken charge while I returned after  my medical leave.  He was  a professor  from I.I.T. Madras.   His beginning was apparently glorious. He declared  in the first  staff  meeting itself that nominated posts will all be filled  through gallop poll (through voting) among the  eligible teachers. Every one  welcomed  it, gladly.

 

One  of those days, a notice  from the  Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) was circulated in the departments inviting members  of faculty to volunteer as  Vigilance Officers  in the  institution.  In the  Ministry of Human Resources Development(MHRD), there was a  Central Vigilance Officer (CVO) for Higher Education, the vigilance officer  in the  institute was required  to act as extended  hand  of the CVO  to report any  corruption in N.I.Ts. It was   specifically mentioned that the  candidate   has to be  one who is not associated with any of the day to day administration in the  institution. Since I had  no  administrative  work other than teaching, I volunteered for the job along with a few others. While volunteering  for the job, I was  not sure what will be  the exact duty of the CVO.  From among those  who are  interested, a  panel of three  names  along with their  bio-data was to be  sent to MHRD. However, the  new Director, nominated  one junior  staff  member  from the Mechanical department who was  from outside the state. MHRD  sent  this nomination  back telling that a panel of three  names of  senior  faculty is to be sent.  

 

After  the  formation of  the  Central Vigilance  Commissioner, all the  institutions under the Government of India were under the surveillance  of the CVC. This was  to report any corruption in these institutions and take effective steps to stop corruption. Consequently N.I.Ts were also brought under the  purviews of CVC  through a CVO  in the MHRD and his associates  in each one of the  N.I.Ts. The office  of CVC was set up in 1964 and it was an independent body like that of the Chief Election Commissioner of India. The  intension was obviously to wipe out corruption from all the  institutions under the  government. The CVOs  in NITs were part of this  great  institution.

 

My  name  was  included  in the  panel of three names submitted  to the  MHRD second time. The panel included  another  professor and obviously  the  name of the person  first time sent. But  the other professor was already  officiating as Dean and consequently  I was  nominated as  the Central  Vigilance  Officer of N.I.T.Calicut. I received a letter  from the  Registrar  stating that  I have  been  nominated as the CVO. From this letter, it was not clear  who was the appointing authority. I wanted  a clarification  as to who has appointed  me as CVO. Then,  I was  given  in writing that the Chief  Vigilance Officer,  Higher Education, MHRD, has appointed  me with approval from the  Central  Vigilance  Commission.  

 

All the  financial transactions  in the N.I.T. were  completely under the control of the  Director of the  institute. Decisions  involving  huge amounts had to be approved by the  Board  of Governors or the   subcommittee  formed  for this purpose  called Finance  Committee. Because  of this, if there  is any financial irregularity in the  institution, I felt that it will be difficult to report this to the CVO  at MHRD through the Director as  he  is likely to be involved in it. This,  I  clarified  with  the  CVO at MHRD and he   confirmed that  such complaints  can be directly sent  to him  without routing it through the Director. As per the direction from CVC, if any complaint is received  from anyone within the institute or outside, the CVO could make a preliminary enquiry without disclosing the  name of the complainant and if found genuine prima facie, appropriate vigilance  agency can be asked to  make a detailed investigation into the complaint.

 

Since  many  people  did  not know how  the  Central  Vigilance  Commissioner and its wings  work together to stop corruption, the first thing I did as CVO at N.I.T. Calicut was  to collect all the  information on this process and publish these in the  ‘Vigilance Corner’  of the  N.I.T.website ( which is  available in the  NITC  website www.nitc.ac.in.)  It was clearly indicated  therein that anyone  can send a complaint to the  CVO regarding any corruption in the institution. Only  complaints signed  by  the  complainant  with his full address  can be entertained and if the person is  not interested  in disclosing his  name, the  proceedings can go ahead without disclosing his name. However, no action  need be taken on anonymous complaints. One week in a year was to be  celebrated as  ‘Vigilance  week’  during which activities for  promoting vigilance awareness  can be done.  During  this week, I invited  officers  from the  Vigilance and Anti-corruption wing of the state  government to address the  staff members, teaching and nonteaching.

 

The  possibility  of  malpractice was mostly in the construction activities  in the  institution. Moreover, it has  been  observed  that  lot of work on development of infrastructure was being held whenever a  new  head  of the institution takes over.  Several  building activities  were going  on at that time.  As CVO, I wanted to examine the  process of inviting tenders and acceptance  of  the tenders of some these   projects  for construction. Initially, there was some hesitation from the concerned officers, but when I asked  for the concerned files in writing, they had to give  it.

 

As grants for  new  buildings  can  be obtained only for new  courses, initial  work started  by the  new director  was  to  repair  some of the existing buildings. The only auditorium  available  in REC Calicut then was  constructed as a multi-purpose hall. It was used as  a place  for conducting  big meetings and also as  indoor court  for playing shuttle  badminton  in the evening. Acoustics of the building was  very poor. Swami  Chinmayananda when he came to address the staff and students said: “Your hall has  been engineered so well that if I speak today, you will be able to hear my speech tomorrow too. So, kindly switch  off the  mike.” So, the  first effort was  to improve the acoustics  of the hall and then stop the leakage from the roof at different places. This was being done at a cost of    40 lakhs. Certain improvements in acoustics could be done which was visible  to all. Similarly, leakage  from the  top slab of the B Hostel had to be stopped. The easiest  possible way was to   bring up an over roof  to stop the  leakage as  other leak proofing methods  have been attempted and failed. A new roof was  created using steel trusses and asbestos sheets which could stop the leakage. A third major repair / extension work was in the REC canteen. A second wing was  constructed on the West side  of the canteen building and provision was  made  for serving food upstairs for  special guests and members  of faculty.  Some facility for the canteen staff to take rest  was also created upstairs.  The estimate  for this  modification work was also not less than 40 lakhs. Since I had  actually examined these  tenders as part of my work as CVO  I could easily remember these figures.

 

At that time, the maximum amount of a work that can be approved by the director himself was not to exceed Rs.10 lakhs.  However, from the files, I found that the estimates of many of these  repair projects  were  much more than 10 lakhs, some of them of the order  of 40 or 50 lakhs. But the  work was assigned to the same  contractor splitting the  same work into  smaller  projects with estimates  of just below 10 lakhs so that this could be approved by the Director without referring to the  Finance Committee  or Board  of Governors.  This, I understood, was intended to short circuit the  Finance Committee and indirectly  enhancing the amount  that can be approved by the Director.  I asked  for an explanation on this and the answer was  some excuse  that is to speed  up the  execution of the  projects.  As  I found this  is not a satisfactory explanation, and  is  improper,  I reported this  matter  via  an email to the  CVO  of MHRD. This was  done without informing the  Director, which obviously was  not to his  liking.

 

As this attempt to  short circuit the  BoG was done  with the full  knowledge  of the  Director and   he was a  party  to the  whole affair, nobody would expect that  if I  submit  this complaint through him,  he will  forward   this matter  to the  CVO  in MHRD. I also  talked  to an inspector  in Central  Bureau of Investigation over phone  on this matter. What  he said was also interesting. “Sir, we  do not have sufficient  staff  to look into matters which involve  a few  lakhs, but if you have anything which involves a crore  or more, we can send a team to your  institution”. Anyway, even from the  central  CVO or  CBI, to my knowledge   no action was taken. The only result was  that I, as an individual became person in the  bad  books  of the Director. (Probably because of this, I myself received a  complaint against  the CVO a few  months  later, this story will be presented later). However, much later, all construction work in the N.I.Ts were  handed over to the  Central Public Works Department, by which it seems  there  was  much more delay  in the completion of the work  and  it was  alleged  that  even the quality  of the  work was  inferior.

 

It is  a sad  fact that very often, in our  country, corruption caught is  from a lowly paid clerk or peon who takes   fifty or hundred rupees  for buying chocolates  for his children. If  found guilty he may even lose his job or  commit suicide. On the  other hand , those who have diverted millions escape unpunished   and enjoy either  in our country in top positions  or escape to  a foreign  soil and live like  kings  there using  the  money siphoned  out to foreign banks.