That this government has taking arbitrary decisions right left and centre, right from the PMO, that has been a dusty, rusting place for a bunch of oldies, got further confirmation with reports emanating to the effect that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) is among the 30-odd Central departments which have failed to comply with a government directive to put in place measures to check arbitrariness in use of discretionary powers enjoyed by their ministers.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which acts as a nodal department to coordinate with the Central ministries has last week sent out a reminder to over 30 departments asking them to give details of such measures along with reasons for not complying with its directives issued over a year ago.
The Centre on April 16 last year had issued a circular to all ministries under it to carry out an exercise for putting in place regulating parameters for exercise of discretionary powers and put them in public domain so as to minimize arbitrariness in exercise of such powers.
In its another circular issued in May, 2012, the DoPT had asked the central government departments to send a copy of such guidelines in case they already existed. In case of absence of these measures, the DoPT had given them three months time to form the guidelines. A reminder dated April 1, 2013 was also issued in this regard. "However, no reply/information have been received…It is requested to kindly expedite the requisite information to this department urgently," the DoPT said in its office memorandum issued today to all the defaulting departments.
There are over 50 Central departments, out of which 18, including the departments of space, IT, labour & employment, and steel have only responded to the government's directive. Departments like health, rural development, agriculture research, education, power, atomic energy and revenue have also complied with the directive.
The compliance was also ensured by home ministry of, Central Information Commission, department of Ayush (health & family welfare ministry), telecommunications, financial services and Northeastern department. The DoPT's directive had come on a recommendation by a group of ministers to tackle corruption after examining the proposal related to "relinquishing discretionary powers enjoyed by ministers at the Centre".
The GoM, which was formed on January 6, 2011, was mandated to advise the government on matters including state funding of elections, fast tracking of all cases of public servants accused of corruption, ensuring full transparency in public procurement and contracts and introduction of an open and competitive system of exploiting natural resources. The government has already done away with discretionary allotment of gas pumps and issue of gas coupons besides discretionary funds at the hands of some ministries like social welfare among others.
