RGCB News: Vigilance Awareness Week; Public Meeting

As part of the Vigilance Awareness Week, RGCB organized an Awareness Symposium for the staff and students on 29th of October 2015 at M R Das Convention Center. The Symposium started with a thoroughly informative presentation on "Preventive Vigilance as a tool of good governance" by Mr. V K Raghukumar, who heads the Vigilance Wing of RGCB. It was quite interesting how he elaborated all aspects of anti corruption efforts at the government level to contain this nasty practice. He also took efforts to convince the gathered audience the statutory guidelines by which RGCB functions to maintain transparency and integrity in all official, administrative and scientific proceedings. 

This was followed by a keynote address by Mr. C M Radhakrishnan Nair, Former Secretary to Government of India and Special Director of CBI. He gave a personal touch to the whole event by narrating anecdotes from his personal experiences in CBI. It was quite refreshing to know how passionate he was about his work that is generally considered a rather sober and boring one. 

An essay competition was held last week among staff and students of RGCB on Vigilance to stimulate a collective thought towards better awareness. The prizes were given to the winners at the end of the meeting. 

From the Director’s Desk:

It amazes me why people always talk about ill earned money as corruption. The Oxford definition of corruption goes as “Dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery; the action or effect of making someone or something morally depraved”, where bribery is defined as “Offering any inducement”. If a person in power, with defined official duties, accepts any favor, exploits any undue influence or opportunity to do or not to do his duty, it will amount to corruption in its actual sense. How many of us had to go searching for personal acquaintances of a person in power to get things done? How many times have we walked into an office saying, "I'm coming with Mr. X's reference" to hasten an otherwise snail pace official process? May it be in public utility services, healthcare, academia, industry or finance? This practice is becoming rampant. We are making the system less approachable to man without "influential reference". Offering money is only one of the ways to get around. Monetary, personal, social or sexual favors have become secret paths for people to get what they should otherwise be getting if the system had functioned normally and certain officials had carried out their duties. That's what needs to change. Every official, as they assign the office, needs to bear in mind that their power comes with immense responsibilities. Their duties are to be carried out in a timely manner, unbiased. As the motto goes, this can be achieved only through industry, integrity and impartiality. As citizens of India, each one of has the moral responsibility to avail services without offering favors, exploring personal relationships or manipulating existing legal structure. And being on the other side of the coin, we also have the responsibility to dispense our duties without succumbing to undue favors of any kind. The irony of accepting favors is that it leaves a lasting liability forcing the recipient of the favor to reciprocate against his will for the giver. If we have to do our duties based on our principles of righteousness, we should not give or receive favors and put ourselves in the difficult spot of obligations that will intensify the vicious cycle of corruption persistent.