Bhubaneswar: Corruption is more dangerous than Corona as its symptoms are intangible, the pain is constant and severe but not felt, and it keeps affecting each one of us every second and every day, said Odisha Vigilance Director Y.K. Jethwa.
While addressing the Senior Functionaries of at a function organized by National Aluminum Corporation Ltd. (NALCO) in Bhubaneswar as Chief Guest on the occasion of Vigilance Awareness Week-2022, Jethwa urged them to focus on Preventive Vigilance to minimize leakages and corruption and enhance productivity and profits.
“The Vigilance Director also stated that ailments like cuts & wounds, and diseases like jaundice, malaria, and the latest Corona are diseases where we experience symptoms temporarily and experience the pain due to bleeding, or fever, cold etc. In comparison, Corruption is more dangerous than Corona as its symptoms are intangible, the pain is constant and severe but not felt, and it keeps affecting each one of us every second and every day,” he said.
He prescribed deploying preventive vigilance tools as a treatment to cure corruption. He laid stress on the need to carry out regular Vulnerability Mapping by identifying processes, activities and individuals prone to corruption, followed by taking steps to plug vulnerabilities by re-engineering business processes, Vigilance Directorate Odisha, Cuttack as well as strengthening multiple layers of oversight and setting up robust protocols and SOPs to keep vulnerable individuals away from corruption prone assignments.
He urged investing in Technology to add extra layers of protection around corruption prone processes in order to minimise leakages & losses and to enhance productivity and growth. Advancements in technology are increasingly aiding in identification of anomalies, outliers, and patterns to detect corruption, malpractice fraud and leakages in business processes and governance. This can help enhance transparency, efficiency and accountability in business systems.
Jethwa urged the management and employees of NALCO to focus on greater technological applications and innovations to aid in preventing, detecting and punishing corruption.
Director Production, Bijay Kumar Das, Director Finance Ramesh Chandra Joshi and Somanth Hansdah, Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) shared the dais and addressed the gathering. Awards and prizes were given to winners of elocution, poster, poetry competitions organized to commemorate the Vigilance Awareness Week.
It is to be noted here that the Vigilance Awareness Week is being observed from October 31 to November 6, 2022 on the theme “Corruption free India for a developed Nation.”
Ms Kalinga