PANJIM: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in Goa promising, among other things, zero-tolerance to corruption. After years of an indifferent government that paid little attention to allegations of corruption, there was expected a change in governance. But with the absence of a Lokayukta, Chief Information
Commissioner and State Information Commissioners, it is at the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) that cases have been piling up.
For years ACB had remained in the shadows, almost non-existent, but after the present government took charge the number of complaints received and registered increased tremendously.
Since its inception in 2003, ACB has registered over 55 cases and of these chargesheets have been filed only in four and are pending trial, another four cases have been closed and 45 cases are still under investigation.
Interestingly, from 2003 to 2011 only 11 cases had been registered but after March 2012 till date over 45 cases were registered by ACB. The question is whether ACB has the strength to handle this large number of cases and to take them all to their logical conclusion?
“Vigilance is not confined to mere transparency and corruption free administration but it also comprises of right decisions and timely implementation, attending to the people on time and discharging duties time to time,” is what Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said on Monday at State secretariat on the Vigilance week.
But a glance at the strength of the ACB and the several years delay in some investigations indicates that the government is not serious. The total strength of the ACB is 18 personnel, including one superintendent, one deputy superintendent, four inspectors, four head constables and seven constables.
Though the ACB office has been shifted to Altinho and has two offices, the space is still insufficient going by the increasing work load. There is neither an independent inquiry room, nor proper sitting arrangement, nor separate proper cabins for the police inspector.
ACB has been targeted for poor performance on occasion, but in most of these cases there is a need of forensic examination and in the absence of a forensic laboratory in the State some of the cases are still pending.
“For voice spectrography we have only three laboratories in the country, in Chandigarh, Shimla and CBI FSL and it takes more than five years to get a report from them,” an ACB officer explained.
The incentives which Goa government had in principle agreed to give ACB officers has remained on paper. They had been promised 25 per cent investigation allowance and one step promotion among other incentives.
It was in 2013 that 245 complaints, the highest in a year, were received. Of these 12 FIRs were registered, 153 complaints are still pending and 92 inquiries have been completed. In 2012, 171 complaints were received of which 7 FIRs were registered, enquiries in 92 complaints were completed and 153 remain to be disposed. Since its inception ACB has received over 1300 complaints of which inquiries have been completed in over 720 complaints whereas 540 are still pending.
Since its inception ACB has registered 48 preliminary inquiries including one in the Mormugao garbage compactor scam and Congress MLA Chadrakant (Babu) Kavalekar’s disproportionate assets in Kerala. Of these preliminary inquiries 25 have already completed over 20 more are still under investigation.
ACB is currently inquiring into the case of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) land allotment in which two former chief ministers were interrogated on Saturday. ACB has also been in the line of fire in the war-of-words between political parties in Goa as one seeks an impartial investigation in the SEZ case and the other claims there has been selective targeting of Congress leaders.
