Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) is an apex Indian governmental body created in 1964 to address governmental corruption. It has the status of an autonomous body, free of control from any executive authority, charged with monitoring all vigilance activity under the Central Government of India, and advising various authorities in central Government organizations in planning, executing, reviewing and reforming their vigilance work.
It was set up by the Government of India in February, 1964 on the recommendations of the Committee on Prevention of Corruption, headed by Shri K. Santhanam, to advise and guide Central Government agencies in the field of vigilance. Nittoor Srinivasa Rau was selected as the first Chief Vigilance Commissioner of India.
The Annual Report of the CVC not only gives the details of the work done by it but also brings out the system failures which lead to corruption in various Departments/Organisations, system improvements; various preventive measures and cases in which the Commission's advises were ignored etc.
Role
The CVC is not an investigating agency, and it either gets the investigation done through the CBI or through the Departmental Chief Vigilance Officers.
The only investigation carried out by the CVC is that of examining Civil Works of the Government which is done through the Chief Technical Officer.
Corruption investigations against government officials can proceed only after the government permits them. The CVC publishes a list of cases where permissions are pending, some of which may be more than a year old.
The CVC has also been publishing a list of corrupt government officials against which it has recommended punitive action .
A few years after the murder of IIT Kanpur alumnus NHAI engineer Satyendra Dubey, the CVC launched an initiative to protect whistleblowers. However, this program has been criticized by ex-Chief Justice of India R.C. Lahoti as being ineffective.