Army’s new vigilance unit to use Corps of Military Police personnel
The Defence Ministry recently approved a new branch for vigilance, which will have the Vigilance Investigation Unit under it.
Indian army cadets march during their graduation ceremony at the Officers Training Academy in Chennai on March 9, 2019.
The Indian Army’s new Vigilance Investigation Unit will use Corps of Military Police (CMP) personnel to conduct independent investigations into corruption allegations when instructed by Army Chief General Bipin Rawat.
The Defence Ministry recently approved a new branch for vigilance, which will have the Vigilance Investigation Unit under it. The branch will function under the army chief.
The army’s field formations already have vigilance setups to investigate corruption allegations. However, issues of transparency could have arisen in the past.
Officials explained that this could happen if an incident of corruption takes place in a formation and the formation itself conducts an inquiry into the matter.
Therefore, for ensuring transparency the investigation unit which will be setup at the Army Headquarters in Delhi will probe deeper into corruption allegations when directed by the army chief.
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The fresh move is also caused by the government directing all organisations to have their vigilance unit directly under the head, which in this case is the army chief.
The new Vigilance branch will be headed by a Major General rank officer and will report to the chief.
“The new ADG Vigilance will function directly under the COAS (read as Chief of Army Staff)…Other than two officers from the navy and air force, the ADG Vigilance will also have a new ‘Vigilance Investigation Unit’ under him,” said an official.
Some personnel from the army’s Corps of Military Police (CMP) will be a part of this unit and carry out inquiries into corruption.
While the CMP already conducts such inquiries and collects evidences, this move would further strengthen their roles.
The move is an organisational reform at the Army Headquarters in Delhi. It is part of an army study on ‘Re-organisation of the Army Headquarters’, which was submitted to the ministry on February 27.
It entails change in the existing vigilance setup at the headquarters. Officials said that the existing setup has a Brigadier (Vigilance) who handles complaints of corruption. He is currently under the ADG (Discipline and Vigilance), who is a Major General rank officer.
Now, the move will result in the post of Brigadier (Vigilance) being upgraded to the new ADG (Vigilance). Secondly, the officer will now report to the army chief.
“It will lead to cutting the chain of command. Until now, when the army chief wanted a case to be probed he would give instructions to the officer who among other things was heading the vigilance branch and he then would instruct the vigilance officer.
But, with this move, the army chief would be directly giving the instructions to the person concerned,” explained an official.
The new vigilance setup like the existing one would monitor corruption cases being handled by the field commands. “We are setting up the investigation unit so that there is more transparency.
And where the army chief wants an independent probe, he can order one,” said an official.
