Ministries told to frame,reveal discretionary power norms

Ministries have been asked to frame guidelines on the disbursal of 'favours'.

In an attempt to stamp out irregularities,all central government ministries have been asked to frame guidelines on the disbursal of favours through their ministers discretionary powers,and to put these rules in the public domain in order to ensure transparency.

All ministries are advised to put in place regulating parameters for exercise of discretionary powers,wherever such guidelines do not exist,and place them in the public domain, says a circular issued by the Department of Personnel & Training on April 16 . Published norms for doling out discretionary favours would minimise any arbitrariness in exercise of such powers,says the circular.

The circular,the culmination of a demand made by Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi in 2010,was endorsed by the nine-member Group of Ministers on Corruption in its second report submitted to the prime minister early March. The GoM,which had earlier batted for scrapping these powers,amended its stance following feedback from 84 central ministries/departments that while 37 of them had no discretionary powers,the rest had only limited discretion,most of which was non-financial.

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The most criticised discretionary powers,dealing with allotment of petrol pumps,gas connections and admission in Kendriya Vidyalayas,have already been abolished. And there are no takers anymore for out-of-turn telephone connections.

The non-economic powers that ministries have include giving diplomatic passports and allocating Haj seats. In a majority of the cases,the discretionary powers are in fact powers exercised by the ministers in performance of their bona fide duties, the GoM report said. These include appointments to boards and corporations.

The GoM was set up in January 2011 to suggest measures to tackle corruption,and asked to advise whether discretionary powers enjoyed by central ministers could be relinquished.

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