The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday said Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh "cannot be lying" on the controversial appointment of the Central Vigilance Commission but has "opted to mislead" the people on the issue and demanded sacking of the top official.
On the back of recent controversies involving the release of Niira Radia tapes, allocation of 2G spectrum and alleged financial irregularities in the Commonwealth Games, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) plans to launch a "moral leadership" campaign to combat the rising incidents of corruption.
As part of efforts to check corruption, the Central Vigilance Commission has sought by early next month financial details of works carried out by different departments during the year for its scrutiny.
An inspection by the Central Vigilance Commission has found serious discrepancies like award of works at higher rates to bidders, poor quality of construction and grant of work to ineligible agencies in different Commonwealth Games-related construction works being carried out by various departments in Delhi.
The Central Vigilance Commission has found alleged irregularities in several Commonwealth Games related works being carried out by civic and construction agencies in Delhi.
The CVC is launching on Thursday a new portal 'Vig-Eye' (vigilance's eye) on the Internet on which the citizens can upload videos or audios direct from their mobiles on the occasion of the UN-designated International Anti-Corruption Day.
Faced with problems of non-cooperation and lackadaisical approach from some of the departments, the Central Vigilance Commission may inspect Commonwealth Games venues and the OC office to gather papers and possible vital evidence to further its probe.
A three member high-powered Committee of Experts was constituted on Friday with the approval of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to suggest measures to expedite process involved in disciplinary and vigilance proceedings.
The advisory sent out to the vigilance officers of banks, public sector undertakings and other government organisations says: "The Commission has come across certain skills and tools that professional organisations, non-profit organisations possess in field of forensic sciences that could be important for investigations."
After a pounding by the opposition, which demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee to go into allegations of corruption in the Commonwealth Games, the government said on Monday that irregularities would be inquired into "exhaustively" and the corrupt will be pursued till the "end of the earth".
The Public Interest Disclosure and Protection to Persons Making the Disclosure Bill, 2010 provides the Central Vigilance Commission powers of a civil court to hand down harsh penalty to people revealing the identity of whistleblowers, official sources said.
The government has rejected the Bharatiya Janata Party's charge that it misused the Central Bureau of Investigation in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case in which Gujarat Minister Amit Shah has been summoned by the probe agency.
The apex court fixed the matter for next hearing on November 16.
Officials of public sector banks topped the list of employees against whom the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has advised initiations of major penalty proceedings.
Officials of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee had hired equipment for overlay works at over 14 times the actual price, an investigation by the central vigilance commission has revealed.
Loan defaulters will now find it difficult to rid themselves of all their liabilities through the one-time settlement scheme.
In order to reduce unnecessary delays in granting a sanction for prosecution against officials to the Central Bureau of Investigation, the Central Vigilance Commission has framed a new three-week deadline for ministries and departments to decide on the issue as compared to the earlier three month timeline.
After the Ordnance Factory scam, Central Vigilance Commission's (CVC) and the Law Ministry's comments were sought and they advised us that these (blacklisted) companies should be allowed to participate in field-trials in contracts where multiple vendors were participating so that the acquisition process was not stalled, Defence Ministry sources said in New Delhi.
Defending his appointment as central vigilance commissioner, P J Thomas on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that there was no sanction to prosecute him in the Palmolein import case. In an affidavit, submitted to the apex court, Thomas said that his name was considered for empanelment for the post after the Central Vigilance Commission had given a clearance for it. He also said he was the senior-most bureaucrat to be considered for the CVC's job.
With a view to protect prudent commercial decision of bankers, the government has taken a slew of decisions, including doing away with personal responsibilities of MD and CEO of PSBs for compliance in dealing with large value frauds committed by bank officials.
The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) lifted the hood just a little off the 2010 Commonwealth Games projects to find several cases of corruption and inefficiency by almost all the government agencies related to the event.
The case is related to the alleged irregularities in granting clearance by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board to INX Media, once owned by Peter and Indrani Mukherjea, for receiving overseas funds to the tune of Rs 305 crore.
Sitharaman also directed public sector bank heads to clear long pending vigilance cases against their officials for alleged malpractices.
The priority of Central Information Commission will be to check vexatious petitions and mounting backlog of cases, its new chief Vijai Sharma said in New Delhi on Wednesday.
It revised an order, issued on January 14 setting up a separate mechanism to deal with such complaints on the ground that 'frivolous or vague complaints were also given importance' and that hence it was better to get them scrutinised by a group of secretaries headed by the Cabinet Secretary.
With CVC finding a 'deficit of trust' in him on the allegations, Sibal was denied an extension as head of India's upstream nodal agency till his superannuation age of 60 years in January 2012.
PSB may get its first non-Sikh at the helm, vigilance clearances are awaited.
Verma came to the CVC office in the late afternoon and stayed there for about two hours, they said.
Over five years, India has reportedly been named in over 70 enforcements; and of those in 2007, more than half arose in the context of M&A.
A CBI team on Friday visited office of oil regulator V K Sibal to check records following charges of his receiving favours from Mukesh Ambani-led RIL to approve an inflated expenditure for gas field, a charge denied by him.
CVC secretary K S Ramasubban on October one wrote to the CBI director Ashwani Kumar seeking 'a discreet field verification' on the allegations of RIL purchasing flats in Mumbai for oil regulator V K Sibal's daughter and incurring expenses over purchase of white goods for her.
The Central Vigilance Commission on Tuesday examined some Central Bureau of Investigation official.
'These officers should have sat together and sorted things out.' 'And if things were not working out amicably then the other organisations which control the CBI -- be it the CVC or the prime minister's office or even the home ministry -- someone should have gone ahead and solved these problems rather than reducing it to this farcical situation.'
Accusing V K Sibal of having a 'nexus' with private parties when he was chief of the upstream oil regulator, CBI has decided to seek the government's permission to probe his actions.
The sad truth is that the debt-to-GDP ratio will shoot up close to 90 per cent in the coming year, and the fiscal deficit glide path does not promise to reduce it substantially any time soon, predicts Mihir S Sharma.
The CVC report spoke about the controversial meat exporter Moin Qureshi's case and claimed that CBI team looking into the case wanted to make Hyderabad-based businessman Sathish Babu Sana an accused in the case but Verma never gave clearance.
The panel's meet held on Wednesday remained inconclusive, they said, without giving further details.
The Central Vigilance Commission report evades the big questions.
Verma has sought quashing of three orders of October 23, 2018 -- one by the Central Vigilance Commission and two by the Department of Personnel and Training, as being without jurisdiction and in violation of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution.
K V Chowdary, who is set to take over as the new Chief Vigilance Commissioner on Tuesday said he has full respect for both Prashant Bhushan and Ram Jethmalani, who have opposed his appointment to the top post in the country's apex anti-corruption watchdog.