The union ministers enjoy too many discretionary powers, but many of them are felt necessary to help the needy and thus may not be relinquished.

The ministry of personnel submitted a long list of these discretionary powers to the Group of Ministers (GoM) on corruption that held its first meeting here last Friday.

Though prime minister Manmohan Singh has committed to Congress president Sonia Gandhi on her call at the party plenary here last month to remove all discretionary powers of the ministers, a senior minister on the GoM said these powers cannot be relinquished in a single stroke as otherwise the government will become helpless to come to the help of even the needy and deserving persons.

For instance, he said, the health minister exercises his discretionary power to order free treatment of the poor suffering from any major ailment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences or the social welfare minister helps the dalits in employment and education of their children.

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the GoM, asked its member ministers to go through the list of the discretionary powers and quota and apply the sieve to those that may be misused to shower favours, without eliminating those that to remain there so far as it is a welfare government.

TRANSPARENT PROCUREMENT:

The GoM is also stumped by the challenge of ensuring full transparency in public procurement and contracts.

Months before Sonia Gandhi called for such transparency at the Congress plenary, the then central vigilance commissioner (CVC) had suggested that there should be a single authority to handle the public procurement policy (and not procurement) as it is cost effective and obviates a lot of complaints and vigilance cases.

The CVC had stressed the need to put in place the comprehensive public procurement standards in India that are required to be followed in all types of the government purchases of material and services. The cabinet secretary was directed by the prime minister's office (PMO) to expeditiously finalise a concept paper in the matter in cooperation with the DG-S&D (director general of supplies and disposals). The GoM is yet to receive a repsonse from the cabinet secretariat.