Montek moots mechanism to address corruption

In this season of scams, the Planning Commission is mulling some intervention mechanisms in the coming 12th Plan (2012-17) to help enable transparent functioning of the government machinery, Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said.

"I think we will be looking at that (corruption arising from arbitrary decisions of government machinery) at the Planning Commission...What are the systemic interventions or restructuring that would make government decision-making much more transparent?" he said at a public lecture here recently. "Too often, the government has too much discretionary powers that lead to scams and corruption."

He said people were "getting away with huge unfair advantage" and described the problem (corruption) as a "legitimate issue" in public economics which is a "not so nice side effect" of the deregulation process. "How do you make sure that you transit to a market-based, much more liberal economy? An economy which cannot be manipulated," Ahluwalia asked.

The malaise, he said, was "the non-transparent access to preferential decision-making". It was widely observed in real estate deals, selection of infrastructure contractors and mining licences, with urban land deals being the biggest problem.

Ahluwalia's comments come in the wake of the 2G spectrum scam, which led to the resignation of telecom minister A Raja last month and the debate over regulation of corporate lobbying. The latter issue came to the fore following the revelations of conversations of corporate lobbyist Niira Radia with politicians, companies and journalists. The tapes stirred a hornets' nest.

It is alleged that during allotment of 2G spectrum in 2008, the telecom ministry shifted goal posts and went by an old policy, resulting in revenue losses of over Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the national exchequer. The case is being monitored by the Supreme Court.