Whistleblower complaints on rise this year: RTI data

NEW DELHI: Is corruption rising in public offices? Complaints to the Central Vigilance Commission appear to suggest so. Complaints by whistleblowers have increased from 625 in 2013 to 470 in just the last six months, according to data accessed through RTI.

The highest number of complaints is from the railways, followed by banks and the income tax department.

The information was made public by the CVC in response to an RTI query filed by Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)'s Venkatesh Nayak. The total number of complaints between 2012 and 2014 is about 1,900.

The CVC has received 470 complaints up to June 2014. In 2012, the commission received 805 complaints which dropped by 23% to 625 fresh complaints in 2013.

Analysis reveals that only 10% of the cases reported under the whistleblower's policy, also called the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection for Informants (PIDPI) resolution, were sent for investigation and reporting. In 2012, 169 of the total 805 complaints or 21% were sent for investigation. In 2013, the CVC wound up only 6 of the 730 cases (these include fresh complaints and complaints from previous years) as "requiring no action". Data for the last eight months of 2012 shows that only one case was disposed of as requiring no action. In sharp contrast, the commission disposed of 44% of the cases (that is 178 of 404 cases) as requiring no action. Nayak said there was absence of information given by the public authority on criminal action taken on the complaints.

"The public in general and most importantly, the whistleblowers themselves have the right to know the reasons for this kind of disposal. I had specifically asked in my RTI application reasons for closure of cases in 2012. They did not furnish this data. There is all the more reason why there must be transparency about such cases because only then whistleblowers will have confidence that their cases were inquired into seriously," he said.