New Delhi: Reduce corruption and corrupt practices in governance - that's the one strong message from the Adminstrative Reforms Commission (ARC) in its report to the Prime Minister.
''MPLADS should go is an unambiguous recommendation of the commission,” said Member Secretary, ARC, Jayaprakash Narayan.
While Moily's team may be unanimous on scrapping funds to MPs and MLAs for local development, politicians will hardly ever agree on this.
Likewise, the Commission suggests the setting up of a Rashtriya Lokayukta to deal with cases of corruption against all union and state ministers and MPs.
But the condition is that Prime Minister be kept beyond the purview of this ombudsman, as implicating him will lead to political instability. A logic that's likely to be challenged.
The Moily report also suggests that the media evolve a code of conduct and a self-regulating mechanism as a safeguard against malicious journalism and the publication or airing of unfounded reports.
It recommends that the Government should be more transparent and share information on corruption.
The report also suggests that electronic media frames a code of ethics for itself and government agencies help media by disclosing details about corruption cases.
From suggesting partial state funding of elections to seeking protection for whistle blowers and incentives for citizen initiatives, the reform commission reads like a great vision statement.
But implementing it depends on political will and making some crucial changes to the constitution.
The immediate challenge remains an informed debate that could at least make the report more acceptable to the Government.
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