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Integrity In Public Life and Service - Reporting
Corruption to Enforcement Authorities

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Prevention of Corruption - Reporting


"If we believe a thing to be bad, and if we have a right to prevent it, it is our duty to try to prevent it and damn the consequences."
- Lord Milner

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The disastrous effects of corruption on our public life are vividly brought out in the previous chapter. It is universally felt that corruption is the evil haunting our society. We all desire to live in a corrupt-free society. We all know that there are adequate laws to punish the corrupt and there are established preventive agencies to investigate, prosecute and punish corruption-mongers. What then is the problem in driving away the miscreant and enable us to live in peace? To prosecute the corrupt, an investigation has to be conducted. To investigate, it needs a complaint. Unless someone comes forward and lodges a complaint, the process is a non-starter. The problem is who will bell this cat? It is the duty of each one us. Each of us feels that some one else will assert this initiative. What is everybody's duty always becomes nobody's interest. The conventional instinct is to feel that it is better to dole a small levy for a quick and sure benefit, instead of wasting our time in hot pursuit of the corrupt officials. This thinking is reflected as a general tendency among most individuals. First we have to get rid of this mind-set.

Another problem faced is that corruption is a white-collar crime, that is practiced covertly and invisible to the general public. It is known only between the giver and taker. The receiver is the offender and the action is possible only by the giver. As per law both giving and taking bribes are offences. The receiver has to come forward and all such receivers must also unite to get rid of this problem. It is a problem for all honest citizens and we must accept a code of conduct not to encourage corruption in our country. Bribe-receiver is provided immunity from punishment by the law, when he in the role of a witness testifies to the demand of the bribe by the "taker".

Reporting Complaints - Clarifications by CVC

CVC has considered this problem and allows aggrieved individuals to submit their complains through e-mail. An individual is weak, but a group of individual with determination can definitely turn the tide. It is for this reason a search is made at the Internet and the different agencies ever ready to assist the common man in his ordeal have been listed and furnished in the earlier chapter.

The following extracts are from the web site of CVC and deals with lodging complaints with them. These are answers to questions on the subject. The answers are self-informative and hence questions are not included.

  1. The CVC welcomes complaints from the general public on any corruption issue. In fact, this forms main source of information.

  2. The CVC does not accept complaints, which are anonymous/pseudonymous in nature.

  3. The signed complaints can be sent through post, fax or can be handed over personally. In fact, one can lodge a complaint through the CVC Website also

  4. Complaints on corruption can be lodged with the Central Bureau of Investigation, Chief Vigilance Officers of the concerned Department/Organisation or the Head of the Department/ Organisation also.

  5. The Fight against corruption cannot be started, let alone won, without the active meaningful support of the public at large. The Central Vigilance Commission invites the co-operation of all right thinking people in their effort to eliminate this scourge. Any member of the public can lodge a complaint with the Central Vigilance Commission on matters relating to malpractices, misconduct or corruption in public services in respect of officials of Central Government Ministries, Departments, Public Sector Undertakings, Nationalised Banks, Insurance Companies, FinancialInstitutions, other Corporations and Societies established by or under any Central Act, Government companies, societies and other local authorities, owned or controlled by the Central Government and it may be sent directly to the Central Vigilance Commission.

  6. All complaints sent by post to the Commission have to be signed and should contain the name and address of the complainant

  7. If a complaint involves contacting persons other than those employed in the department or collecting documents in private possession, the Commission asks the CBI to investigate and send report. Allegations, which are only administrative in nature, are sent for appropriate action to the department concerned. On receipt of the investigation report by the CBI, after considering the views of the concerned departments, the Commission tenders appropriate advice.

Procedure to Lodge a Complaint With CVC through E-Mail

The Commission invites complaints through e-mail also. If you want to lodge a complaint against any public servant who fall within the jurisdiction of the Commission, all you have to do is to key in the following information at the following E-mail address: vigilance@hub.nic.in

Lodge a complaint now!

  1. Name of officer against whom complaint is being lodged

  2. Designation/Post held of officer against whom complaint is being lodged:

  3. Organization/Department of officer against whom complaint is being lodged:

  4. Details of allegations/misconduct/corrupt act of the officer against whom complaint is being lodged:

  5. Name and address of the complainant

You may visit CVC Internet site and use the complaint form readily provided, fill up the particulars and click the submit button. In case you have typed wrong particulars and want to change your text, you may click the Reset button to clear the screen.

Motivating Citizens to Lodge Complaints against Corruption
to CVC through Web Site Bhrasht.Com

The difficulty faced by the public and the need to overcome this reservation to come out and lodge complaints is also stressed in the following paragraphs taken from the site "bhrasht.com" "ONE of the primary objectives of this site is to empower every Indian citizen with the motivation and the means of refusing to comply with demands of gratification from government and quasi-government personnel in return for discretionary favours that you are entitled to as per the law of the land.

It's easier said than done, of course, especially if the stakes are high; depending on the situation, one may stand to lose substantially in material as well as emotional terms. There may be occasions when a simple yes might spare you and your loved ones a whole lot of suffering that'll have to be endured without expecting any social or state cognition of your moral stand. And it's all too true that when the times are unfavourable, you are absolutely on your own. As the eternal adage goes, "Laugh and the world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone..."

We can't do much to help you take this difficult decision, except perhaps to point out that at the end of the day, no pillow in the world is softer than a clear conscience. What we can do is make it as painless as possible for you to implement a decision to stay true to yourself.

That's where the Corruption Reporting Form comes in.

Anyone who's ever been to a public-dealing government office -- and all of us have got to at some time or the other -- would be only too aware of the lengths to which their state-appointed custodians could go to defeat your purpose of visiting it. They wouldn't have to flout any laws to do so; quite the opposite, actually. All they'd do is make you see red. "Red Tape", to be precise.

Designed to flummox all but the brightest of legal eagles, there are only two known ways to shear your way through this maddening legacy of our erstwhile British law-makers: pay up or name drop. That is, either you share your fortune with the concerned government servant, or have a superior authority personally acquainted with you to persuade him/her to sustain a "loss" just this one time and oblige you with whatever's necessary.

The irony is that the government's vigilance offices work in much the same manner. Even if their personnel wouldn't usually explicitly solicit bribes to let you file a corruption-related complaint with them, not everyone may be motivated or enterprising enough to track down the location of a local vigilance office, which is competent to accept your complaint and follow the prescribed 'procedure' before they do. Besides, a lot many people may be chary to file a complaint of sensitive nature in person. One could send in a compliant by postal mail, of course, but that's not exactly an easy or sure-shot way of doing it either.

The evolution of the Web has provided a way out of this mess. Most vigilance authorities in the country are now accessible by e-mail, through which a corruption-related complaint may conveniently be filed. That's what the Corruption Reporting Form essentially does: you fill in the necessary fields with the relevant information without having to make lengthy explanations, and it processes the same and e-mails a neat copy of the complaint to the concerned authorities.

To file a corruption-related complaint, simply click on the 'File A Report' (or its abbreviated form) link at the bottom of this page as well as most other pages of this site(web site of Bhrasht.com). This would take you to the section outlining the Terms & Conditions of Using the Site, which you are required to go through and indicate your agreement with before you could avail of this special service for our visitors.

That done, you'd be shown to the Main Page of the form itself, appropriately entitled the Hall of Shame. Simply follow the instructions to file a report. Once successfully submitted, this would stand published on the main page for public perusal for the next one year.

Simultaneously, a copy of the report is forwarded to the Editorial for vetting out reports that are simply inappropriate/unworthy to be put up for the attention of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) while the rest get immediately forwarded to the electronic mailbox earmarked by the CVC for the lodging of corruption-related complaints.

While it is of course the CVC's prerogative on how such reports are eventually dealt with -- it must, for one, be able to establish a complainant's identity before taking cognisance of public complaints -- the social disgrace and humiliation inherent in this sort of public exposure would surely deter some individuals to desist from demanding gratification in cash or kind for a favourable discretionary decision(s).

Fields

The Corruption Reporting Form contain the following fields:

  • Essential

    1. Name: (Your name)

    2. Email: (Your email address*)

    3. Subject: (The individual you're filing the report against, including current designation, department and station of posting.)

    4. Details: (The factual grounds for filing the report)

  • Optional

    1. URL : (The Internet address of a page on the Web containing complete/more details of the case (optional)

    2. Password: (Required to delete the report after publication. Use any easy to remember word (optiona))

    3. Notification:( Checking this option would invoke an email notification to be dispatched to the email address you are specifying if and when a rejoinder is made to the report or visitors' comments added (optional))

[*Necessary for subscribing to the email notification service. If you don't yet have a personal e-mail account, click here (at the internet site of the agency) to sign up for one free of cost]

In keeping with the principle of natural justice and fairness, anyone charged with an act of corruption is welcome to file a rejoinder in self-defence, citing appropriate facts and arguments in support.

To exercise this option, simply click on the relevant report to bring up a form identical to the one used for reporting, except that when filed/submitted, it gets published immediately beneath the report in question, indicating its status as a rejoinder or comment. This allows for an easy and methodical perusal of the listings by visitors to the site.

Visitors may add remarks/comments to a report in the same way.

You have the option of previewing your report before publishing it. To invoke this, click on the "Review Report" button next to the 'File Report' button. If you're satisfied with the way it is, you may proceed to publish it right away by hitting the 'File Report' button.

Else, use your browser's 'Back' button to return to the report and make the necessary modifications, after which you could again preview it if so desired.

If you want to retain the right to delete a report you're filing at any point of time due to some reason, simply specify a password in the box provided in the main form.

Just make sure you are able to recall it when deleting a report or it wouldn't get deleted! In that case, you'd need to request our Admin Dept. to delete it, which is a complicated procedure requiring a special software.

An internal Search Engine is provided on every page to help you locate a specific report at the Hall of Shame by specifying various details like the name of the person who filed it or against whom it was filed or just a word in the body text.

This is especially useful in the case of looking up the archives, where all reports automatically get moved after 3 months from the date of filing, unless of course deleted by the author using a pre-selected password.

If you like, you may opt to receive an e-mail notifications each time someone files a report or rejoinder.

To subscribe to the E-mail Notification Service, click on the "Subscribe" button on the navigation bar and enter your email address in the form that comes up.

You can unsubscribe to the service at any time using the same procedure on his form."

Procedure For Lodging Complaints with The Site Corruptindia.Com

The contact address of this organization is

The Project Co-ordinator
corrupt india.com
Compact Disc India Ltd.
SCO 856, NAC, Manimajra
Chandigarh-Kalka Road
Chandigarh 160 101 (INDIA)
TEL : (0172) 734331, 732119
FAX : 91-172-733014
e-mail : post@corruptindia.com

All honest citizens of India whether residing in cities, villages or even in small localities have a fairly good idea about who is corrupt and who is not and who has managed to go scot-free for one reason or the other. If you are concerned citizen, you can hardly be happy with the existing state of affairs. Exploited majority has always got a raw deal at the hands of a corrupt minority. Over the years corruption has ruled over our lives so completely, that we have become indifferent towards it, as we know that corrupt people will always escape the dragnet. By supporting us, you are backing the first systematic attempt to correct the system. Unless we correct the system, it will be futile to expect a corruption free society. We assure you that in future, none of the corrupt people will now rest in peace.

Come Forward, Expose Corrupt People and Get Rewards

You can make complaints either at-

  • complaints@corruptindia.com, or

  • by sending it by post at address given above. The complaints should not be vague and must have sufficient details about the acts, methods or properties owned by the corrupt people. The complainant has a choice to make anonymous or give his/her name and address on the complaints. However no reward will be given to anonymous complaints. The details to claim the rewards are given in REWARDS.
    (http://www.corruptindia.com/rewards.html).The identity of the complainant will be kept strictly confidential.

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