ACB holds capacity-building workshop for DDOs, officials of executing agencies at Ramban

RAMBAN, January 11: Jammu and Kashmir Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) today organised a Capacity Building Workshop for officers and officials of executing agencies, besides Drawing Disbursing Officers (DDOs) here in the Conference Hall of District Administrative Complex, Ramban.

The Director Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) J&K, Anand Jain presided over the workshop held to sensitize the Officers of executing agencies especially DDOs about the lapses in the maintenance of records in developmental works, importance, and issues while using the GeM portal for public purchase, and role, and responsibility of Departmental Vigilance Officers (DVOs) including procedures to be adopted for fair and timely conduct of inquiries against their subordinates involved in malpractice.

The workshop was attended by Deputy Commissioner, Ramban, Mussarat Islam  SSP, Ramban Mohita Sharma,  AIG (Hq) ACB   Sandeep Wazir,  AIG (DVO) J&K, Kulwant Jasrotia,  AIG (Policy) ACB J&K, G.S Ghuman,  SSP  ACB (DKR), Mushtaq Choudhary, SSP ACB (Central) Abhisheikh Sharma, Executive  Engineer, ACB, Dev Raj Bhagat, District and Sectoral Officers,  Executive Engineers, AEEs, AEs, JEs and Technical staff of executing departments.

Director ACB   stressed upon the officers to follow the prior Accord of Administrative Approval (AAA) & Technical Sanction (TS), tendering through e-NIT, various qualifications of works, and percentage-based tendering. He asked officers to strictly use the GeM portal for public purchases, besides conducting market surveys and adopting Reverse Auctioning to avoid an unnecessary loss to the government exchequer.

During the interaction session, the Director ACB cleared the doubts of participants regarding the conduct of fair, transparent, and time-bound government business, execution of works and public purchases in the work-executing departments.

Earlier, the officers of ACB gave two separate PowerPoint presentations on the lapses in the execution of the public developmental works by various executive agencies and procurement of material on GeM portal, besides giving  a detailed insight about the remedial measures, and Codal formalities to be followed for ensuring the transparent execution of developmental works.

An Integrity pledge was also administered by the Deputy Commissioner during the workshop. The participants were advised to follow Codal formalities religiously to avoid complaints and litigation and go for tendering only after administrative approval and technical sanctions. 

Lauding the efforts of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) for organizing a workshop to sensitize the officers and officials to avoid frequent lapses during the execution of developmental works, codal formalities, and procurement of Material, Articles on GEM portals, the Deputy Commissioner urged the Director ACB to organize such workshops on a regular basis to provide handholding to new officers and officials.

 Besides, briefing the meeting about measures taken by the District Administration for ensuring transparency in the execution of developmental works, the DC said that it is committed to achieving the goal of a corruption-free district in the UT in near future.

Meanwhile, a threadbare discussion was also held on the role and responsibilities of the Departmental Vigilance Officers (DVOs), including the procedures to be adopted for the fair and timely conduct of inquiry against subordinates involved in corruption and malpractice.

The DVOs were instructed to use a designated portal for replies and avoid sending hard copies. The DVOs were further advised to conduct proper inquiries into the matter and not to rely on affidavits, compromise declarations etc.