P.J. Thomas Sworn in as CVC

Former Telecom Secretary P.J. Thomas was sworn in as India's 14th Central Vigilance Commissioner on 7 Sept 2010. He is an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1973 batch (Kerala cadre). Previously Thomas held important assignments in the Government of Kerala as Secretary in Finance, Industry, Agriculture, Law and Justice and Human Resource Development Departments. He is also the Founder Director of Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode. He became Chief Secretary of Kerala in 2007 and in January 2009 moved to Government of India as Secretary in Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. He had been Secretary in Department of Telecommunication since October 2009 and is credited for initiating the 3G auction in India. He succeeded Pratyush Sinha who is a 1969 batch IAS officer of the Bihar cadre. R Srikumar and  J M Garg were appointed as other Commissioners in CVC.

The CVC is appointed by a three-member committee headed by the Prime Minister and also includes the Home Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. The Central Vigilance Commission was set up by the Government in February 1964 on the recommendations of the Committee on Prevention of Corruption which was headed by K. Santhanam. The Commission was set up to advise and guide Central Government agencies in the field of vigilance. The Central Vigilance Commission was made a multi member Commission with "statutory status" with effect from 25 August 1998. The CVC Bill was passed by both the houses of Parliament in 2003 and the President gave its assent on 11 September 2003 following which the Central Vigilance Commission Act 2003 (No45 0f 2003) came into effect from that date. CVC is an apex vigilance institution, free of control from any executive authority, monitoring all vigilance activity under the Central Government as well advising various authorities in Central Government organizations in planning, executing, reviewing and reforming their vigilance work. The CVC consists of a Central Vigilance Commissioner (Chairperson) and nort more than two other two Vigilance Commissioners (Members).