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Bharat Electronics Ltd.

BEL Celebrates Vigilance Awareness Week

Oct 30, 2014   19:08 IST 
Bangalore, Karnataka, India

‘Greed over need’, lack of humanism, eroding values and the lack of a sense of contentment are the major factors that contribute to the growing menace of corruption in India, said Justice N Santosh Hegde, former Lokayukta, at a function organised by Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) as part of Vigilance Awareness Week.

 

Delivering a lecture on ‘Lokpal & Lokayuktas Act 2013’ at BEL’s Corporate Office in Bangalore, Justice N Santosh Hegde stressed on the relevance of having an ombudsman like Lokayukta, but with a significant degree of independence, to represent the interests of the general public by investigating and addressing complaints of maladministration or violation of rights. The office of ombudsman is a Scandinavian institution that has received much attention in recent years, he said.

 

Citing cases where the Lokayukta had bailed out distressed citizens, Justice Hegde said that punitive measures could help tackle corruption only to an extent. A change of mindset was the need of the hour. Unfortunately, subjects like Moral Science and Civics no more find a place in school syllabi, he lamented. Ambition is good, but one should take care not to be on the wrong side of the law while trying to achieve personal goals.

 

Vigilance Awareness Week observed at BEL

Vigilance Awareness week 2014 is being observed in BEL from October 27 to 31, 2014. The theme of this year’s Vigilance Awareness Week, given by the Central Vigilance Commission, was ‘Combating Corruption – Technology as an Enabler’.

 

Various activities were conducted at Corporate level and across the 9 Units of BEL to spread awareness on Vigilance. The Corporate Vigilance division organised a cycle rally for 75 students of BEL CBSE Vidyalaya and BEL High School on October 25, 2014. The cycle rally was flagged off by Mr S Shiva Kumar, Chief Vigilance Officer, BEL. As many as 52 varieties of plants including sandal, teak, neem and peepal, were planted at a tree plantation programme organised at the BEL Colony in Jalahalli. Mr Manmohan Handa, Director, BEL-Bangalore; senior officers of BEL, 20 NCC cadets and 15 Seva Dal cadets from BEL High School participated in the tree plantation drive.

 

Various competitions including skit, poster, slogan and PowerPoint presentations and sports events for school children were organised during the week. A friendly cricket match was also organised between the Directors and senior executives of BEL at the
Dr Ambedkar Stadium, BEL-Bangalore.

 

Preventive Vigilance at BEL

BEL has laid down a set of exemplary systems and procedures to ensure Preventive Vigilance. Preventive Vigilance comes into play before any act of corruption takes place. The system itself, through internal checks and balances, ensures that an act of corruption does not take place. Technology is an effective tool to combat corruption. The root causes of corruption like delay and lack of transparency can effectively be avoided by use of technology, especially information technology, for handling mass data, which with its capacity for operating at high speed and providing wide access through communication channels, can fully be leveraged for combating corruption.

 

Over the years, BEL has taken several e-initiatives as systems improvement measures, like e-payment, e-procurement, Supplier Relationship Management in SAP, e-tendering and uploading vendor payment information on the website. Recently, the Company introduced the File Management System through SAP, which will act as a mechanism for Preventive Vigilance.

 

ISO 27001 certification

BEL was recently awarded the Bureau Veritas ISO 27001 certification for Information Systems. ISO 27001 is an international security standard giving requirements related to Information Security Management System in order to enable an organisation to assess its risk and implement appropriate controls to preserve confidentiality, integrity and availability of information assets. The fundamental aim is to protect the information of an organisation getting into the wrong hands or losing it forever.

 

Student Anti-Corruption Wing

The Corporate Vigilance of BEL has launched a Student Anti-Corruption Wing (SAW), a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country, involving the students of BEL-run schools, with an aim to establish high ethical and moral standards amongst the youth of India. As part of the SAW programme, students are trained in basic morals and ethics and vigilance. The children are also made aware of social laws and the Indian Constitution to fight the bane of corruption. SAW acts as an interface between the Vigilance wing of Government / PSU / CVC and generates vigilance awareness among the general public in a bid to establish a corruption-free society. In every school, a group of 30-60 students from 8th, 9th and 11th classes have been enlisted as core members of SAW. Students’ coordinators elected from among the teachers liaise with the senior officers of Vigilance wings of BEL as well as Vigilance Study Circles. As part of the training curriculum of SAW, members are also taken out on conducted tours along with senior vigilance officers.


 
 
Justice N Santosh Hegde, former Lokayukta, speaking at a function organised by Bharat Electronics Ltd as part of Vigilance Awareness Week. Also seen are (Left) Mr Prabhat Acharya, Director (Finance), BEL, and (Right) Mr S Shiva Kumar, Chief Vigilance Offi
Justice N Santosh Hegde, former Lokayukta, speaking at a function organised by Bharat Electronics Ltd as part of Vigilance Awareness Week. Also seen are (Left) Mr Prabhat Acharya, Director (Finance), BEL, and (Right) Mr S Shiva Kumar, Chief Vigilance Offi
Mr Manmohan Handa, Director, BEL-Bangalore, planting a tree sapling along with Mr S Shiva Kumar, Chief Vigilance Officer, BEL, NCC cadets and Seva Dal cadets from BEL High School.
Mr Manmohan Handa, Director, BEL-Bangalore, planting a tree sapling along with Mr S Shiva Kumar, Chief Vigilance Officer, BEL, NCC cadets and Seva Dal cadets from BEL High School.
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