Document 6517367

SOUTHERN RAILWAY
A Bi-Monthly Vigilance E-Bulletin
General Manager’s Message
I am happy to know that the Vigilance
Department has taken initiatives to leverage
web technology for disseminating Vigilance
related information. Preventive Vigilance
forms the bedrock of entire effort of Vigilance
mechanism and timely vigilance information
shall go a long way in spreading awareness
among the officials; the result of the awareness would be
continual improvement in adherence to laid down systems and
procedures, for all around betterment of quality. The E-Bulletin
should aim at achieving better transparency to dispel the
unfounded fears coming in the way of effective execution of
work.
I hope this effort would evoke good involvement of the users,
whose participation would make the exercise purposeful and
bring about qualitative improvements. I wish this E-bulletin
makes continued contribution to effect improvements in the
overall organisational work environment leading to better and
better effectiveness.
Wishing you and your families a Happy and Prosperous New
Year 2010.
Deepak Krishan
General Manager
Sensitising the Public about corruption
Jan - Feb 2010
What is CVC’s first stage advice?
Whenever cases are investigated either by Vigilance or by CBI
against Railway Officers, such investigation reports are sent to
the CVC (Senior Scale and above) through Railway Board
along with the tentative action to be taken by the Disciplinary
Authorities. Depending upon the circumstances and facts of
each case, CVC advises (a) initiation of criminal and/or
Departmental proceedings against the concerned public
servants; or (b) issuance of Administrative warning to him/her;
or (c) closure of the case. CVC’s advice at this stage is termed
as First Stage Advice.
What is CVC’s second stage advice?
On receipt Enquiry Report from the Enquiry Officer, the General
Manager forwards the same to the Railway Board Vigilance
along with his views. The Railway Board forwards the same to
CVC along with its comments. Advice given by the CVC at this
juncture is known as second stage advice.
Special drive against touts
During November 2009, Vigilance conducted 72 checks on
tout activities and 62 touts / anti-social elements were
apprehended and prosecuted under section 142 &143 of
Railways Act. Tickets to the value of Rs.27212/- were
seized and an amount of Rs. 57945/- was collected as fine
besides prosecution of the offenders.
To sensitise the public about corruption, CVC requires all
departments / organisations to prominently display a standard
notice board in the reception area of their offices about the
message of the commission against bribery and corruption. In
addition to the message, the designation, complete address,
telephone/fax nos. and E-mail address of the Head of the
Department, Chief Vigilance Officer. SP/CBI and the
designation & address of the Secretary/CVC also needs to be
displayed on the notice board.
Complaint Handling Policy
In the system where the complaints are handled in a
decentralized manner, there is every chance that a complaint
with a vigilance overtone may not be forwarded to the CVO,
due to a lack of appreciation or for other bonafide reasons.
Therefore, CVC has observed that a ‘Complaint Handling
Policy’ is to be laid down in all organisations/departments for
receipt, handling and processing of all types of
complaints/grievances from the public, contractors, vendors,
suppliers etc. As per this policy, any complaint/grievance
received in the organisation/ department by any functionary
containing any element of alleged corruption, malpractices or
misconduct etc., should necessarily be sent to the CVO of the
organisation for scrutiny and action.
Calamity is the test of integrity.
- Samuel Richardson
No water in Omana’s Coach
In a Chapter “Omana’s Journey” in NCERT text book of
“Environmental Studies” for Class IV , a small girl writes about
her experience of train journey in her diary. “I went to brush my
teeth, but there was no water in the bathroom…” To make it
worse, one of the questions as a part of exercise at the end of
the Chapter was “Why do you think there was no water in the
bathroom of the train? Discuss.
It hurts all of us that today Indian Railways is not able to make
water available for a child in a running train. Increasing
responsibility also results in greater accountability. We have to
rise to the expectations of all our stakeholders to ensure that
the “bathroom of Omana’s coach” does not run dry.
- Excerpts from the farewell article by Shri ShriPrakash, MT, in irts.org.
Honor your commitments with integrity.
- Les Brown
SOUTHERN RAILWAY
A Bi-Monthly Vigilance E-Bulletin
Nuggets
Written statement of defence in Major
Penalty charge sheets
Copies of listed relied upon documents (RUDs) are required to be
attached along with the charge sheet. When it is not possible these
words should be scored out in Para 1 of charge sheet. Permission
is required to be given to CO (charged official) to inspect the
originals of RUDs before preparation of written statement of
defence to be submitted within 10 days of delivery of the charge
sheet / within 10 days after completion of inspection of documents.
This is the first opportunity given by the DA to CO for submission of
his/her case. Hence the CO should, very carefully, prepare written
statement covering all points and submit it to DA in submissive
wordings. If the CO requests for personal hearing in his/her written
statement of defence the same is required to be given by the DA
and then take decision. The following aspects are to be borne in
mind by the DA before taking decision:(1) Consider written statement of defence and decide whether the
inquiry should be proceeded.
(2) If decided to proceed with the inquiry, DA itself can inquire into
such of the articles of charge as are not admitted or appoint
Inquiring Authority (IA). (Appointing IA will be good in the
interest of natural justice).
(3) When all charges are admitted by CO the DA should prepare
speaking order and impose penalty after taking any further
evidences as felt necessary in the interest of justice.
(4) In case the CO has partly or fully admitted the charges the DA
should specifically decide whether further evidences on such
charges are required and if required then only entrust the IA to
inquire into those charges. Inquiry work can be entrusted to IA
on partly denied charges.
(5) If the DA, after consideration of the written statement of
defence, is of the opinion that the imposition of a major penalty
is not necessary, it may drop the proceedings already initiated
by it for imposition of major penalty, without prejudice to its
right to impose any of the minor penalties (not requiring
conduct of inquiry) and pass order imposing such penalty and
it will not be necessary to give the railway servant any further
opportunity of making representation before the penalty is
imposed.
(6) In absence of any written statement of defence, the DAR
inquiry must be held.
Conduct Rules
Gifts -- SubSub-rule 13 of RSC Rules, 1966
No railway servant shall accept or permit any member of his
family to accept any gift. The expression gift shall include
free transport, boarding, lodging or other services or
advantage provided by any person having official dealings
with the government servant. A railway servant shall avoid
accepting lavish hospitality or frequent hospitality from any
individual, commercial firms, organisation, etc. having official
dealings with him.
A railway servant may accept gifts from his near relatives or
his personal friends having no official dealings with him on
occasions like weddings, anniversaries, funerals or religious
functions in conformity with the prevailing religious and
social practices. Railway servant should make a report if the
value of such gifts exceeds
Rs.7000/- …. Group ‘A’ Railway servant;
Rs.4000/- …. Group ‘B’ Railway servant
Rs.2000/- …. Group ‘C’ Railway servant;
Rs.1000/- …. Group ‘D’ Railway servant
In any other case, the railway servant shall not accept any
gift without the sanction of the government if the value
exceeds:
Rs.1500/- …. Group ‘A’ & ‘B’ &
Rs. 500/- …. Group ‘C’ & ‘D’
Receipt of presents by railway servant at the time of their
marriage in the form of cash, ornaments, cloths or other
articles, other than as consideration for marriage from
relatives and personal friends and others will be regulated by
the above rules.
Making or acceptance of gifts amongst “Near Relatives”
which include father, mother, son, daughter requires the
approval of the competent authority in terms of sub-rule (5)
of Railway Services (Conduct) Rules, 1966.
K.K. Sudhakaran, Sr.EDPM / PGT
During a preventive check conducted at a PRS terminal in a major industrial city, the special cancellation register was cross checked
with the applications. It was found that a passenger had tendered a Tatkal Ticket for cancellation after the departure of the train
without knowing the fact that refund is not permissible on Tatkal tickets. However the check revealed that one ECRC had taken
Special Cancellation on the above ticket. The original application form, which was dealt by another ECRC, was removed and
replaced with a new form duly altering the date of journey in support of the Special Cancellation. Thus, an amount of Rs.7410/- was
misappropriated. The concerned ECRC has been suspended and DAR action is being initiated.
In one Case, the Ballast sample was collected for testing the quality even before the stacking of ballast. Such a practice will lead to
confusion, as to what extant the sample results will affect the quality/payment of collected Ballast. The proper stack numbers were to
be assigned, measured before the representative sample is drawn as this will facilitate pinpointing of the culprit stack(s) as which
should be rejected. But for random purposes, if during supply, sample was taken that can help to regulate the quality. This should be
over and above the stipulated mandatory number of tests to be done and cannot be construed as a proper test required for passing
the Ballast stack for payment. In this subject the concerned official and officer were taken up in DAR proceedings.
In a preventive check conducted at a Stores depot, it was noticed that a safety category item was supplied with forged inspection
stamp. The item has to be inspected by RDSO before supplying to the consignee. The firm presented the items for RDSO inspection
and obtained inspection certificate. The items were, then dispatched by rail to the consignee but never reached the consignee. When
the firm came to know that the consignment has not reached the consignee, they supplied another un-inspected lot by affixing an
inspection stamp similar to the one that was available on the inspection certificate along with the inspection certificate pertaining to
inspected lot. This became possible only because, the inspection certificate did not contain the batch number or date of manufacture
of item inspected. The system improvement of including date of manufacture and batch /identification number of the items inspected
in the inspection certificate is suggested to Railway Board apart from appropriate action against the firm.
SOUTHERN RAILWAY
A Bi-Monthly Vigilance E-Bulletin
Colourful Corruption
White corruption
Role of Teachers in fighting corruption
Misuse funds, by exaggerating salaries and (inventing)
costs, without justification.
India is today one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
Corruption pervades every aspect of our life. Starting with
political corruption, we are all caught in a vicious cycle of
bureaucratic corruption, business corruption, corruption in
NGOs and criminalisation of politics. The education sector is
also totally affected by corruption in our country today.
Black corruption
Starting with the admission to the kindergarten schools, right
up through every stage in education many key aspect of
education are infected with corruption. The exam system is
also riddled with corruption and leakage of exam papers is a
prevalent phenomenon. The introduction of self financing
colleges has in turn brought a totally different approach to
education where education has based mere consumer and
corruption based.
Red corruption
The importance and the influence of the teachers in shaping
characters are well known. It is to be pointed out how values
are shaped by our parents, our religion, our peers and above
all our primary school teachers. If we want to tackle
corruption we will have to encourage in people the value of
integrity and dedication to truth and make them realise that
greed is not good. The teachers, especially the primary
school teachers who interact with the students at very young
age are in an important position to influence values.
Straight forward, simply don't pay for contracted services,
materials or equipment.
The issue of the teachers’ role in fighting corruption therefore
can be looked from two angles. The first is the individual
angle of the teacher himself. The teacher himself must be
honest and must have a feeling that in his role as a guru, he
must become a role model and must walk his talk. The
second angle of the teacher’s role in fighting corruption is to
see to what extent he can mobilise the students as a
community in fighting corruption.
There is a need for introducing moral instruction classes so
that students are forced to think in terms of values and the
need for integrity. Value based education is an another area,
in which teachers can play a role in inculcating the values and
for this, concerted efforts has to be made by not only
individual teachers but also collectively by the teaching
community so that teaching of values become part of
education at every stage.
The idea of encouraging groups of students at least to
observe certain basic codes of conduct and introducing a
code of honour and self discipline can be a starting point.
Every teacher to the extent possible can try to form such
groups among the students so that at least the issues of
integrity are not merely discussed and described upon and
also practiced. The students can also be encouraged to
become whistle blowers and help in fighting corruption.
The teachers should constantly try to inculcate the values in
students not by too much of preaching or articulation but by
their action at every stage. Action speaks much louder than
words. The extent to which the teachers can succeed
fighting corruption ultimately will depend upon their
commitment and the persistence with which they operate.
- Excerpts from the article by Shri N. Vittal, former CVC.
Re-allocate or transfer of money under threat. Not always
the person himself is to blame.
Orange corruption
Transfer funds to own bank accounts, direct or via friends or
companies.
To supply counterfeit and low quality products and shift the
‘savings’ to managers and decision makers.
Yellow corruption
Also called "commission", rather innocent, but can easily slip
into the Red C-bug.
Purple corruption
Green corruption
Deliver service to friends or institutes without asking
payment.
Brown corruption
Similar to Purple corruption, but now done by the
beneficiaries of the service, high in number, so the effect is
large.
Tom is applying for a job as a signalman for
the local railroad.....
...and is told to meet the inspector at the signal box. The
inspector decides to give Tom a pop quiz, asking: "What would
you do if you realized that two trains were heading towards each
other on the same track?"
Tom says: "I would switch one train to another track."
"What if the lever broke?" asks the inspector.
"Then I'd run down to the tracks and use the manual lever down
there", answers Tom.
"What if that had been struck by lightning?" challenges the
inspector.
"Then," Tom continued, "I'd run back up here and use the phone
to call the next signal box."
"What if the phone was busy?"
"In that case," Tom argued, "I'd run to the street level and use the
public phone near the station".
"What if that had been vandalized?"
"Oh well," said Tom, "in that case I would run into town and get
my Uncle Leo".
This puzzled the inspector, so he asked, "Why would you do
that?"
"Because he's never seen a train crash."
Try not to become a person of success but rather a person of value
- Albert Einstein
SOUTHERN RAILWAY
A Bi-Monthly Vigilance E-Bulletin
Inspiring Anecdote…
CVC has issued a Circular (No.007/CRD/008 dated 15.2.08)
detailing advisory check points to know the difference between PC
made of “Genuine Parts” and that made of “Counterfeit Parts”. The
gist of the circular is as furnished below:
Lal Bahadur Shastri was the second Prime Minister of India,
after India gained independence. Although his physical stature
was small, he was the man of great courage, will, and integrity.
Because of his great qualities he was and is a great inspiration.
CPU
The following story shows the integrity of the great man. Rarely
to be seen in today’s world.
Information as seen in ‘My Computer’ -‘System Properties’ can be
deceptive. Buyers should therefore, use various tool / utilities like
the ‘CPU-Z’ Utility or the ‘sSpecNo.’ for ascertaining the real
parameters of the CPU. Utilities like CPU-Z are available free on
the web.
Monitors
While he was the Prime Minister of India his son approached
him with great joy and enthusiasm. The son said, "Father today
I have received and appointment letter from this big company
and they are offering me huge salary." Lal Bahadur Shastri had
a close look at the appointment letter. There was a smile on his
face and he said, "You have not received the appointment
letter on your own merit." He continued, "Nobody would offer
you such appointment with such handsome salary. The only
reason for the letter is that you are the son of the Prime
Minister of India." Lalbahdur Shastri asked his son to deny the
proposal as it would mean the acceptance of bribe from a huge
company.
While ‘Genuine’ Picture Tubes have all mandatory Certifications,
‘Counterfeit’ Picture Tubes would not have these certifications.
Certification gives an assurance of Reliability.
This story stands apart when in today’s newspapers, news
channels we frequently listen and read the stories of
government officials small to big doing just the opposite.
Hard Disk
There is No border or Refurbished label on genuine new HDD. In
addition to this, buyers may also use HDTUNE_210 Utility. This
utility shall return Hard Disk Manufacturers’ Serial no. and Date of
manufacturing of the Hard Disk.
Operating System
Purchasers should check the IT Hardware supplied (randomly
selected IT Hardware) for Certificate of Authenticity (COA) pasted
on the PC for product serial number and OEM’s / Supplier’s name
to be printed on it. Microsoft provides an inbuilt tool to diagnose the
“Genuineness of its Operating System”. One could go to ‘My
Documents’, and ‘Help’, from where one shall get step by step
instructions to find out whether the windows installed is genuine.
Cartoon Corner
Low Quality Memory Module
Memory chips are remarked or downgraded wafers are plastic
packed under unknown brands or remarked with names of well
known brands. It is better to go in for proven reputed brands.
Fraudulently Marked SMPS
In power supplies, wrong marking of the wattage is done. The
power supplies do not carry all required certifications.
Counterfeited Consumables
Counterfeited consumables such as printer cartridges etc are used
which are refilled with ink of poor quality leading to poor
performance and clogging, smudging in printers etc. It is advisable
to buy consumables from OEM authorized suppliers or distributors
to ensure quality and longevity of the printer equipment.
For full contents of CVC circular, please visit http://cvc.nic.in
The easiest thing to get, but the most
A person is not given integrity. It results
difficult thing to get rid of is a bad
from the relentless pursuit of honesty at
reputation.
all times.
Please mail your suggestions / feedback to [email protected]