Complaints of corruption in govt departments rise 67 per cent in 2016: CVC

The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on Thursday said complaints of corruption against various government departments surged by a whopping 67 per cent in 2016 over the previous year, with the Railways topping the list.

Over 11,000 complaints were received against the public sector behemoth, the CVC has said.

In its annual report tabled in Parliament recently, the probity watchdog said it received a total of 49,847 complaints in 2016, as against 29,838 in 2015 -- an increase of 67 per cent.

"The Commission received a considerable number of complaints against public servants working in the state governments and other organisations who do not come under the jurisdiction of the Commission or which are of administrative nature," it said.

The number of complaints received by the CVC in 2015 were 50 per cent less than a total of 62,363 received by it in
2014. The CVC had got 31,432 and 37,039 complaints of alleged corruption during 2013 and 2012 respectively, the report said.

Giving details, the CVC said the highest of 11,200 such complaints were against railway employees. Of these 8,852
were disposed of and 2,348 were pending. Further, a total of 1,054 complaints against railway employees were pending for more than six months.

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The number of complaints against those under government of National Capital Territory of Delhi has declined with a total of 969 received last year as against 5,139 in 2015.

As many as 6,513 complaints of alleged corruption were received against employees under Home Ministry, followed by 6,018 bank officials and 2,496 related to those working with the Ministry of Petroleum.

A total of 2,646 corruption complaints were received against officials of the Income Tax department, 2,514 against those in Urban Development Ministry and 2,393 related to employees working under Telecommunication Ministry, it said.

There were 1,746 corruption complaints against employees under Labour Ministry, 1,668 in Food and Consumer Affairs department, 1,420 of customs and excise, 1,376 in public sector insurance companies and 1,369 against officials of Ministry of Steel, the CVC said.

A total of 759 complaints were against Coal Ministry employees, 724 of Information and Broadcasting Ministry, 689 in Defence, 571 related to employees of Health and Family Welfare department and 479 against officials of Shipping Ministry.