Recently a group of ministers proposed three major measures to deal with corruption. But the government missed out on making a noise about this

The Manmohan Singh government has lost touch with both types of PR: public relations and political reality, both of which are inextricably intertwined in the face of the challenge thrown by Anna Hazare and the millions who follow him.

The government has decided on three strong anti-graft measures which will make life a lot more difficult for corrupt bureaucrats and ministers. But the way the announcements have been made is more like a cat mewing in the dark than a lion roaring in the full light of day.

Take this news agency story, for instance. It says that a group of ministers (GoM) headed by Pranab Mukherjee has proposed that the discretionary powers of ministers and bureaucrats in procurement of goods and equipment for the government—from rice to the purchase of aircraft—will either be shelved or severely curtailed.

Every year, government procurement by the Centre, down to the panchayat level, is an unbelievable Rs11 lakh crore.

The GoM is convinced that abuse of discretionary powers is the major reason for corruption. It decided to quickly draft a national policy on procurement and a law to fix accountability. India is one of the few countries which does not have a national policy in this regard. Both the national policy and the law will be placed in parliament during the winter session.

The draft law has the following features:
> All procurements should be after competition between suppliers.
> All states and union territories should have a "Transparency in Procurement Act" stipulating the methodology for procurement, identify authorities for procurement decisions and a mechanism to look into irregularities.
> The criteria for evaluation of bids will be laid down before the auction process begins, which cannot be changed under any circumstances.
> Procurement wings will do market research to arrive at reasonableness of the suppliers' bids.
Only officials with proven integrity should be involved in the procurement process.
> Payments to suppliers to be settled promptly.

According to another report, the same GoM has proposed that bureaucrats face a 10% loss of pension for minor cases of corruption and a 20% cut for major infringements that lead to compulsory retirement from service.
Cases of public servants accused of graft will be put on the fast track and disciplinary action decided within a year of a complaint being received.

Expectedly, the GoM was constituted soon after Congress president Sonia Gandhi called for measures to check corruption at the party's plenary session at Burari, in Delhi, in November 2010. Not much happened until Anna Hazare turned up with his Lokpal Bill and was supported by millions.

The third major anti-corruption measure proposed by the government is a new policy for allocation of 2G spectrum. The draft law says that for commercial use the government shall follow fair, transparent, equitable, non-discriminatory, market-based competitive assignment which may include (but is not limited to) methods such as auction, tender, bidding. The newspaper report said the methods followed will be like the transparent auction for 3G/BWA which yielded over Rs1 lakh crore to the exchequer in mid-2010.

These are three vital methods of reducing corruption by huge amounts. And how are they announced to the public? Through driblets in different newspapers which underplayed them.

The government has a vast Press Information Bureau. The prime minister has an information advisor. But even a rookie reporter would have handled it a lot better.

He would have clubbed these three decisions and called a press conference at Vigyan Bhavan, the biggest auditorium in Delhi. He would have lined up Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and the entire Cabinet on the dais and gone to town, touting these as the biggest, most fantastic response to the demands of millions of people that corruption be eradicated. (No mention of Anna Hazare). But we have a weak, confused government which doesn't know its shoulder from its elbow.

(R Vijayaraghavan has been a professional journalist for more than four decades, specialising in finance, business and politics. He conceived and helped to launch Business Line, the financial daily of The Hindu group. He can be contacted at [email protected].)