HYDERABAD: As part of measures to combat corruption, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has suggested that Government departments entering into major purchase agreements adopt the concept of "integrity pact" to ensure transparency.

Speaking to reporters after inaugurating a two-day workshop on "Procedural improvements in indirect taxes," the CVC, P. Shankar, said that as per concept in vogue abroad both "seller and buyer" would enter into a pact pledging to implement rules and maintain integrity, while agreeing to appoint a third party to monitor the deal. The third party, acting like an ombudsman, would have powers to cancel and impose penalty in case anybody violated the pact.

ONGC to follow suit

Mr. Shankar said the Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, had already declared that the concept would be adopted in his departmental contracts of over Rs. 300 crores.

The ONGC had also expressed its readiness. The CVC said he would persuade all major departments to implement it.

Earlier, he told the workshop that punitive vigilance had its limitations and called for attacking the "flaws" in the system to curb corruption.

As part of this, the CVC had asked all Central departments to place tenders on websites and also allow on-line submission of tenders from this month. The departments were directed to put up results of purchases.

Survey planned

He stressed that every department should use IT to ensure more transparency and improved accountability.

Referring to the 90th ranking given by the "Transparency International" to India, he said the Centre for Media Studies would conduct a survey of departments having intense public interface and assess public perception.

The commission disposed of 80 per cent of complaints within two to three weeks.

In his brief interaction with reporters, Mr. Shankar felt that annual reports submitted by the CVC to Parliament should be discussed by a parliamentary committee on the lines of CAG reports. Though the CVC was submitting them annually, the reports were not being discussed.

Self-sustaining system

The Revenue Secretary, K. M. Chandrashekhar, stressed the need for building a self-sustaining system which minimised harassment.

A national data centre on indirect taxes for networking 70 locations was being built. A similar exercise would be done for direct taxes. V. P. Singh, member, Central Board of Excise and Customs, and Jayaprakash Narayan, Coordinator, Lok Satta, spoke.

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