Hyderabad: Public servants receiving Indian or foreign currencies from children abroad must inform the departmental authority, else it would be confiscated by the Anti-Corruption Bureau. This was despite the income being legitimate.
In 99 per cent cases, the ACB found that officers did not inform the authority which was mandatory as per the TS conduct service rules. Any land, flat or independent house bought by public servants with legal income must be informed, else they could lose it in ACB raids. It was found that over 65 per cent of officers did not mention purchases in their income-tax returns.
A senior officer with Telangana’s ACB said, “Legitimate money deposited in officers’ personal accounts by their children abroad and used for personal purpose, like the purchase of movable and immovable properties, paying bank loans, money lending, must be informed to their departmental authority. Else, the very source of income is questionable and the ACB is liable to confiscate the money if trapped. But money deposited in children’s individual or NRI accounts will not come under the ACB’s purview.”
Any purchase of land or house must be informed with documents, even if they were bought out of salary or ancestral money, going by conduct rules, the officer said. Revenue generated out of these properties like rent or lease money would not be treated as legal.
Agricultural land given for cultivation and the revenue generated out of that was questionable, officials said. Officers trying to trick by purchasing in benami names would come under the IT Benami Act and the Enforcement Directorate would take action under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
These procedures were to tighten prosecution, investigation and punishment.
As per Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, every government employee other than a member of the AP last grade service, and a record assistant in the state general sub-ordinate service, must submit a statement of all their immovable and movable properties exceeding '20,000.
