Govt reminds deptts to check discretionary power by ministers

Many central government ministries are yet to put in place measures to check arbitrariness in use of discretionary powers enjoyed by their ministers, over an year after the Centre had issued such a directive.
Irked over delay in finalising ways to check ministers' discretionary powers and put them in public domain, the Centre had yesterday sent reminders to all such defaulting ministries.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which acts as a nodal department to coordinate with Union ministries, 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 minimise 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.
Noting that most of the ministries have not acted on its directive, the Centre had issued reminders on April 1 and July 11 this year in this regard.
"However, the requisite information in respect of your Ministry/Department has not been received till date. I shall be grateful if you could personally look into the matter and expedite the requisite information," the DoPT said in a missive issued yesterday to all defaulting ministries.

The DoPT, however, did not mention the name of departments who were yet to provide such details. In its earlier such order issued last month, there were over 30-odd ministries including the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) who had failed to comply with the directive.

There are more than 50 central government departments, out of which 18, including the Department of Space, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Department of Information Technology (Ministry of Communications and IT), Ministry of Labour and Employment and Ministry of Steel have responded to the government on the matter.
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.