Hyderabad: Special cases referred by the government to the Chief Minister’s Office for approval for prosecution, are invariably referred back to the Secretariat for more references. It is said that the CMO goes by the report of the Secretariat mostly and seldom by the findings of the ACB.
The decision to prosecute or not to prosecute in cases where government servants are accused of graft is taken by the administrative department of the Secretariat after receiving the final report of the ACB in consultation with the Vigilance Commission. The VC will examine the record and forward the same to the concerned administrative departments of the Secretariat.
A majority of cases do not end in judicial punishment but in departmental disciplinary action like suspension from work for a certain period of time. In some cases suspended officers have returned to work though the departmental punishment of no promotion, salary hike or perks remains in place.
Apart from ACB cases, there are 300 reports filed by the Vigilance and Enforcement wing (V&E) since 2014.
