Govt unveils online vigilance clearance, e-service book

An online system to process cases of vigilance clearance for senior-level appointments in central governments was launched today by Union Minister Jitendra Singh.

Initially, the system will be made available for board-level appointments done by Public Enterprises Selection Board for Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs).

Soon, it will be extended for senior appointments in banks and in government departments.

"The non-availability of vigilance clearance has been one of the bottlenecks in ensuring prompt filling of vacancies in the CPSEs. This system will bring about sea change in appointment processes and will cut delay in the process," said Singh, Minister of State for Personnel.

All central government ministries will be asked to regularly update database of officers on the system which will act as "computerised parameter of honesty", the Minister said.

There have been complaints from some bureaucrats about delay in processing cases of vigilance clearance which may take over three months in a few cases.

"The time will be cut from a maximum of three months at present, to a day or two. It is a big step towards transformation of processes," said K V Chowdary, Central Vigilance Commissioner, who was present during a function to inaugurate this initiative.

Besides this, an electronic service book module has also been launched by the government.

The 'e-service book' will electronically maintain service records, including leave, house building allowance, history of work done by employees at various departments and other relevant details.

Service records are maintained manually in the government departments.

"The maintenance and service records and pension cases have been priority areas for the government as we don't want an employee to face problem in accessing post-retirement benefit. In case of transfers also, it is mandatory to transfer service book from one department to another and from one state to other, which poses risk of record being lost.

"The e-service book will help in maintaining the employee's service related records online and result in quick processing of cases of pension (in case of retirement) or salary (in cases of inter-departmental or inter-state transfers," a senior officer in Personnel Ministry said.

The e-service book has been started on pilot-project mode for the employees of Personnel Ministry and soon it will be extended to other departments as well.

Employees will have an option to update necessary details on the e-service book module, the officer said.