Busy fighting corruption charges, the government has decided to form two committees of secretaries (CoS) for revamping crucial processes which are at the root of corrupt practices. The committees will chalk out ways of implementing changes in the allocation of natural resources and the government’s procurement system, which will be followed up with amendments to legislative and policy guidelines.
Though secretaries of various government departments were part of two expert committees that submitted reports on the matter to a group of ministers (GoM), the CoS was formed due to differences among them, said an official who did not want to be quoted.
The GoM on corruption has referred the matters to the two CoS after a meeting last week. “There were two presentations made to the group on June 16 based on the recommendations of expert committees headed by Ashok Chawla, former finance secretary, and Vinod Dhall, former head of the Competition Commission of India.
| THE STORY SO FAR A SIX-MEMBER GOM ON CORRUPTION, HEADED BY FINANCE MINISTER PRANAB MUKHERJEE, FORMED IN JANUARY 2011 |
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After the presentations, the group decided to refer the matter to CoS,” he said. Besides, the matters concerned a gamut of various ministries which the GoM could not go into individually in its meeting, he added.
The Chawla committee had made recommendations on the allocation of natural resources, while the Dhall-led panel proposed a procurement framework for government departments. While the reports were submitted to the Cabinet Secretariat earlier this month, they had not been made public as yet, said the official. Both allocation of natural resources, which includes telecom spectrum, and procurement processes adopted for the Commonwealth Games, 2010, have been at the centre of recent controversies.
Officials said, among other things, the Chawla committee has recommended favouring close monitoring of post-award obligations with reference to audits relating to investments and exploration commitments in the case of allocation of oil and gas blocks. This recommendation assumes significance in the light of the controversy over the draft CAG report on cost estimates and extension of exploration phases for oil and gas blocks awarded to Reliance Industries Ltd, Cairn India, British Gas and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.
Though the committee has expressed satisfaction over the New Exploration and Licensing Policy, the committee has supported moving towards an open acreage policy and a greater clarity on the role of the Director General of Hydrocarbons, the upstream regulator, especially with regard to its relationship with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
On the other controversial issue of the allocation of spectrum, though the committee has recommended continuation of the auctioning process followed for the third generation spectrum last year, it favours a proper assessment of spectrum and bandwidth availability and a schedule of bidding. This is considered important in order to avoid price distortions in the auctioning system. The committee has also favoured making the wireless planning and coordination wing independent of the telecommunication ministry to remove any discretion and influence by the government functionaries. The other option is to merge it with the existing telecom regulator Trai, said an official.
The Chawla committee had differences with the Ministry of Mines over its recommendations on allocation of mines. While recommending changes in the draft Mines and Mineral Development and Regulation Act, the committee has rejected the mines ministry’s suggestion on the security of tenure for moving from the prospecting stage to actual mining without going through the bidding process.
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Lack of unanimity, however, was more prominent when it came to the issue of government procurement that runs into some three trillion rupees annually. While officials representing the ministries of railways and defence wanted to continue the practice of the respective ministries doing the procurement, there were voices within the committee who felt that spending should be dictated by the Ministry of Finance. “There are about a half dozen dissent note along with the main report on procurement,” a member of the committee told Business Standard.
India is under pressure from international agencies like the World Trade Organization (WTO) for greater transparency in government procurement. The Dhall-led committee had to design model procurement laws and guidelines conforming to standards laid down by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement and that of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Besides, recommending a centralised e-procurement portal was also part of its recommendations.