Vigilance Awareness Week 2023 Concludes at NRL in Guwahati
The week-long observance of Vigilance Awareness Week 2023 at NRL, on the theme, ‘Say no to corruption; commit to the Nation’ from 30th October to 05th November 2023 culminated today, i.e., the 6th of November 2023. The closing function was held at NRL Corporate office, Guwahati. The program was streamed live for all employees of NRL spread across different locations including Numaligarh, New Delhi, Kolkata, Siliguri, Paradip and other project locations.
The function was graced by the presence of Dr. Ravi Kota, IAS, Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Assam; Shri Maninder Singh, IAS (Retd.), Chairman, AEGCL, Govt. of Assam; Dr. Ranjit Rath, CMD, Oil India Limited and Chairman NRL and Smt. Pooja Suri, Independent Director, Oil India Ltd.
MD, NRL, Shri B J Phukan; Chief Vigilance Officer, NRL, Shri Amit Saran (IRSME); and Director (Finance), NRL, Shri Sanjay Choudhuri also attended the closing ceremony.
Dr. Ravi Kota (IAS), Additional Chief Secretary, Govt. of Assam, in his speech compared Vigilance to the natural cognitive skill of the human mind which is at play at every step; losing which may lead to a fall; and stressed on the need for every Public Servant to practice preventive, participative, proactive, and punitive vigilance.
Shri Maninder Singh, IAS (Retd.), Chairman, AEGCL, Govt. of Assam, in his speech, highlighted the essence of the theme adopted this year.
He further said that corruption erodes public trust and impedes economic growth, while lack of transparency leads to economic problems, skews resources allocations, weakens the rule of law which thereby erodes the principles of equity and justice.
Mk, Dr. Ranjit Rath, CMD, Oil India Limited, congratulated NRL for the endeavours undertaken for the week-long observance. Ethics and integrity are intrinsic qualities and value systems that we inculcate over a period of time. If we maintain highest standards of integrity and ethical behaviour as professionals and public servants, the issue of corruption will not arise, he said. He also urged employees to recognise and respect each others domain strengths and adhere to policies, procedures, guidelines and SOPs while utilising their knowledge and information available at that point of time for informed decision making.
Further, MD, NRL, Shri B J Phukan in his speech, elaborated on the tight rope walk faced by companies in ensuring competitiveness by ensuring completion of mega projects without delay while adhering to procedural guidelines and probity. He also advised all employees to maintain the highest caution in the formulation of contracts, point out deviations during the course of execution of the contract to avoid vigilance queries after completion of the projects.
Smt. Pooja Suri, Independent Director, Oil India Ltd, applauded the ground-level activities put in by NRL throughout the Week, and elucidated the role of IT in eliminating corruption from society; and urged all Public Servants to lead by example in this regard.
CVO, NRL, Shri Amit Saran, IRSME, in his address to the august audience, reminded every Employee that each of them have an integral role to play in ensuring integrity, honesty, fairness and transparency in the organisation.
Guwahati06-11-2023
Earlier, the closing function commenced with the welcome address delivered by Smt. Pronita Deka, GM(Vigilance), NRL, wherein the august audience was apprised of the various activities taken up during the week to sensitise and re-affirm the collective responsibility of NRL towards upholding probity in the conduct of duty and even beyond.
The activities for employees and their dependents included the conduct of quiz, essay and slogan competitions and a host of talk-sessions on the PIDPI (Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Informers) Resolution, and Capacity-Building training programmes for employees across office locations of the Company.
Further, internal manuals/guidelines/circulars were updated, and systemic improvement measures were identified and implemented; along with the launch of a Complaint Disposal Portal for timely disposal and monitoring of Vigilance complaints.
Moreover, endeavours for fostering mass sensitisation on the ills of corruption included the conduct of a Business Partners’ Meet at Kunjakan, NRL Township at Numaligarh; an outreach programme at Numaligarh High School, Gram Sabha at Kordoiguri Village and a Walkathon at Golaghat with participation from 150 children, in order to encourage commitment to a unified approach of the general public for realising a vigilant India of tomorrow.