IAS officers’ assets to be made public
The Centre has decided to make public details of assets of all serving IAS officers and other Group ‘A’ Central Service Officers by June 1.
The DoPT is planning to post all details on its website as a move to bring transparency where information regarding assets, income tax returns and assets of their dependants, submitted by the civil servants is brought in the public domain.
Sources disclosed the committee of secretaries (CoS), headed by cabinet secretary K.M. Chandasekhar, has recently cleared the move to allow the DoPT to put the details of assets of all IAS officers and other Group ‘A’ Central Service Officers on the DoPT website by June 1. The other members of the CoS include home secretary G.K. Pillai, DoPT secretary Alka Sirohi among others.
A move to make asset details of bureaucrats and their income-tax returns available to the public under the Right to Information Act, 2005, was recently discussed in the meeting of the group of ministers (GoM) on corruption headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee.
However, the government’s recent move comes in the backdrop of a recent circular issued by the DoPT asking all the ministries and departments in the Central government and the state governments to forward immovable property returns of all IAS officers for the year 2010 to the DoPT.
It had sought to make public the annual property return as on January 31, 2010, of members of All-lndia Service and other Group ‘A’ Central Service Officers.
To ensure strict compliance of timely filing of the immovable property returns, the DoPT had also indicated that the government will hold back vigilance clearance for officials who do not file their immovable property returns within the set timeframe.
Government sources said that officers who fail to submit their asset details could possibly find their names put up on the DoPT website and also attract penal action.
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