& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

PRSP misses action on graft, governance

REJAUL KARIM BYRON
Though donors had proposed a number of reforms aimed at ensuring free and fair elections, a prerequisite for good governance, the government's proposed Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) barely reflects them.
The PRSP does tell of corruption and poor governance. But in many cases, its policy matrix does not offer any exact solution to those problems. In some cases, no time frame has been set while in some other cases, the time span set in the papers looks too long.
The much-talked about PRSP, a three-year strategy for the government's development programmes, goes before the National Economic Council (NEC) today for final approval.
The proposed paper presents the national priorities for attaining the goals in poverty reduction. The future aids from the donors will also largely come in line with the directions embodied in the PRSP.
The government is due to place the paper before the donor agencies next month. A donor community source said the donors in the meet may raise issues related to good governance and
corruption.
The first PRSP draft was prepared in January this year and was sent to various donor agencies and it was revised in July.
Donors had recommended creating a regulatory framework for the Election Commission (EC) to make sure it [EC] has the full legal and regulatory authority essential for independent and impartial oversight of elections.
Besides, having a transparent and flawless voter roll, bringing about transparency in appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), empowering the EC to formulate its own budget figure prominently in the recommendations put forward by the donors.
Apart from these, they had suggested making mandatory the registration of political parties with the EC, giving the commission enough power to investigate campaign expenditures as well as use of state resources in electioneering.
Donors had also categorically pointed out, “Given that elections are at the heart of the political governance malaise, and that potential political instability or 'internal shocks' caused if
elections are not deemed free and fair could seriously hamper development and the implementation of the PRSP”.
The PRSP mentions strengthening of the electoral code of conduct, but it does not outline exactly what the government wants to do in this regard.
The paper however portrays the decaying standards in oversight functions and blamed those on a lot of factors including the involvement of the administration in duties beyond their core responsibilities.
The appalling conditions of the interface between politicians and administrators were also noted in the document. The administrative people appear to have retained far greater state power than the politicians, “a majority of whom assume offices with little or no training in state-craft or policymaking”.
The paper also points to the politicians' tendency to concentrate on their respective constituencies to meet the electoral expectations when it comes to taking up development programmes. It often clashes with the notion of the governance standards.
Referring to the institutionalised corruption in development projects, the paper points to “the phase of 'cost estimation' wherein a much inflated estimate lays the groundwork for a corrupt distribution of resources among key project stakeholders.”
The PRSP document observes that the problem of corruption and poor governance lie largely in the fact that certain strategic sectors, particularly the police, judiciary and transport, remain largely unreformed. “Both police and judiciary have been untouched by serious reform,” it said.
The around 400-page PRSP document has taken up 100 pages to outline its policy matrix, detailing its strategic goals, key concerns, and prospective future actions.
Regarding separation of the judiciary from the executive, a long-standing demand of both the donors and the civil society, the PRSP sets year 2007 as the time limit for the job. The policy matrix also stresses the need for raising the standard of lower judiciary and set it as “future priority”.
The Supreme Court had set a time frame for the government to separate the judiciary from the administration but time and again the government has taken time from the court to do it.
Regarding reforms in the police, the policy matrix emphasises reducing the non-essential workload [of the law enforcers] like maintaining protocol
and VIP duties, and developing a viable and long-term reform agenda. But again, it does not detail how the government wants to go about it.
On reforms in the civil service, the PRSP mentions reviewing the rationales and mechanisms for attracting talents from within and outside the government to senior positions by 2007, once again taking too long a time and not spelling out how it will be carried out. Besides, the talk of forming a permanent body to monitor and update civil service reforms is there but no timeline is set for that.
The PRSP policy matrix says little also about any plans or strategy to make the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), which has been an election pledge of the government, effective. Though more than a year has gone since the formation, the ACC has yet to start working effectively.
Acknowledging the importance of accountability and transparency in public expenditure and public revenue, the paper tells of strengthening watchdog bodies and developing better indicators of corruption, and said enacting Right to Information Act is essential for this purpose. But the policy matrix does not offer any specific time frame to do it.
The PRSP mentions the problem stemming from the lawmakers interfering in the management of the local bodies, but does not say how this problem can be solved except for saying that MPs' role in union development expenditure should be curtailed.