Last week, Chief Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal sent a request to Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar for the list and has now issued formal orders. ``The move is essentially a measure to keep a check on corruption. Officials of all classes are expected to submit annual returns and submitting them to the CVC will ensure that they are properly scrutinized,'' he told The Indian Express.

The CVC has issued the order under 8 (1G) of the Central Vigilance Act which empowers it to ``to exercise superintendence over group A officials.'' Once the returns are made available to the CVC, they will be stored in a computerised format which willprovide a centralised data base for investigative agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation. If a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act is registered against a civil servant, his property returns will be immediately available to the investigators.

Vittal says the new measure will prove to be a ``zero-cost'' method of combatting corruption in the bureaucracy. Submission of returns to the CVC will also act as a spur to ensure that officials file their returns since currently a large number of senior officials are ignoring the rule.

Figures available with the Department of Personnel indicate that nearly 17 Secretaries to the Government of India have not filed the annual returns. Besides, around 75 Joint Secretaries and 62 Additional Secretaries have also been ignoring the rules.

At present, apart from issuing reminders which could later translate into ``severe'' censure there is very little the Government can do about errant officials. Even if the annual returns are submitted they are notsubjected to any specific scrutiny. Says a senior DoP official: ``At least if the returns go to the CVC, officers may be apprehensive about undervaluing their assets.''

Under the conduct rules framed for group A gazetted officials they are expected to submit annual details of property acquired by them.