Enforcement Directorate: India

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This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content.

Personnel issues

2017: operates at 44% of approved strength

Pradeep Thakur, ED probing scams with 44% strength, December 10, 2017: The Times of India

Sanctioned strength and its vacancy position for manpower in Enforcement Directorate-supervisory level, investigating officers, legal staff, all posts
From: Pradeep Thakur, ED probing scams with 44% strength, December 10, 2017: The Times of India

The ED is facing an acute manpower crunch as it continues to operate at 44% of its approved strength, impacting critical operations at the investigating officers’ level, which has as many as 319 posts vacant.

A recent note prepared by the agency and shared with the Central Vigilance Commission and the government shows that, against an approved strength of 2,064, the agency currently has a working strength of only 864.

The shortage of officers is higher at the critical level of deputy directors, assistant directors and enforcement officers, who are also the investigating officers (IOs) in all Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) and Prevention of Money Laundeing Act (PMLA) cases.

At this level, the agency is operating at less than 58% of the approved strength. Out of the 750 sanctioned posts in these three categories, the current working strengthis431.

The agency has brought to the notice of the government how even at the supervisory level the strength is depleted with only 25 of 43 sanctioned posts occupied. The highest vacancy at the supervisory level is among joint directors, with only 17 of 33 sanctioned posts occupied.

The agency has said the last time the government advertised for the appointment of joint directors was in December 2016, but no selection has been made so far.

A senior officer pointed out how the monetary incentive available for investigating officers keeping them on a par withCBI and income tax officers has also been withdrawn by the government, leading to disappointment among staff who have been burdened with additional work in view of thehigh number of PMLA cases registered over the past few years.

A status report revealed that the agency had an opening balance of 4,700 FEMA cases in 2014-15. Over the past two years, it has managed to bring pendency down to1,900, disposing of allcasesfrom before 2001. Similarly, under PMLA, the agency had an opening balance of 1,300 casesin 2014-15, pending since 2006, which it managed to bring down to 445 in 2016-17.

The EDiscurrently investigating many high-profile cases, including that of fugitive tycoon Vijay Mallya, former Maharashtra deputy CM Chhagan Bhujbal, and YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy, besides those pertaining to the stock exchange and import-export scams where shell firms were used to remit black money to the tune of croresoutof India.