Sri Vijaya Puram, Oct. 28: The Vigilance Awareness Week is celebrated every year across India, in the week in which the birthday of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel falls with the aim of fostering awareness and promoting integrity and transparency in public administration through awareness programmes and preventive vigilance initiatives. This year, the Vigilance Awareness Week 2026 is being observed from 26th October to 1st November 2026 with the theme ‘Probity for Prosperity’.
As part of the Vigilance Awareness Campaign, the Vigilance Department of Andaman Nicobar Administration organized a one-day workshop for Officers & Staff of Andaman & Nicobar Administration on ‘Preventive Vigilance and Capacity Building’ today at Tagore Govt. College of Education, Sri Vijaya Puram. About 200 officers and officials attended the workshop.
The Workshop was inaugurated by Shri Gyanesh Bharti, IAS, Chief Secretary/Chief Vigilance Officer, A&N Administration.
Addressing the gathering, Chief Secretary emphasized on preventive vigilance rather than punitive vigilance. He urged that the most important approach in fight against corruption has to be that the public interface should be totally dispensed with and all services & schemes provided by the Government Departments should be made online and monitored with objectivity by analyzing the time taken and the service delivered parameters.
He also emphasized that equally important are one’s own commitments to perform his or her official duty on time with absolute integrity, transparency and accountability. He laid stress on the objectives of good governance in a sustainable way, for which it is very important for officers and staff to refresh and reorient to the various procedures, rules, instructions of Govt. of India and CVC Guidelines. He also advised the Inquiry Officers and the Presenting Officers, who also attended the workshop, to complete the pending Departmental Inquiries within the stipulated timelines, for quick disposal and decisions. He urged for adopting a mission mode to clear the pendency.
The Chief Secretary urged for promoting a culture of preventive vigilance and said that the true success of vigilance lies not merely in identifying corruption after it occurs, but in creating systems and practices that prevent it from occurring in the first place. He asked the participants to become an active ambassador of vigilance by not only committing to work as per the rules and procedures and encouraging ethical practices within their respective areas of responsibility, but also to make other colleagues and staff aware about the importance of preventive vigilance and the importance of integrity and accountability.
On the occasion, Dr. Sachin Shinde, the Commissioner-cum-Secretary (Vigilance) highlighted the need to develop new result-oriented approaches and to continuously identify and address systemic gaps. He emphasized the role of learning and relearning in understanding the complex procedures of vigilance matters so that a decision can be taken on facts of the case and inquiry is concluded without any harassment and unnecessary delays.
The Director, Central Vigilance Commission, Shri Dhananjay Kumar Ranjan spoke at length on topics of vigilance angle involved in complaints and consequent actions, requirement of advices from CVC. He familiarized the participants with the steps and procedures those are to be followed in handling various complaints, protection of Whistle Blowers and Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Informers provisions.
The Anti-Corruption Unit explained the procedural aspect of Prevention of Corruption cases, Permissions for Investigation and Prosecution Sanction under Section 17 and 19 of PoC Act, 2018.
The workshop was targeted for imparting training and capacity building of officers including the Inquiring Authorities, Presenting Officers and other administrative officials of various departments on vigilance matters and other components of preventive vigilance.
The Workshop included interactive sessions on other relevant topics of Preventive Vigilance by way of IT interventions & initiatives, drafting of charge sheet, role of Inquiring Authorities & Presenting Officers in departmental inquiries, vigilance clearance by various resource persons including retired Government servants.
The Workshop witnessed enthusiastic and interactive participation by the stakeholders and concluded with a quiz exercise on the topics which were part of the Workshop. The participants of the Workshop reaffirmed their commitment to upholding integrity, transparency, efficiency and accountability in discharging their official responsibilities.