Babudom divided over memorandum of understanding approach

GANDHINAGAR: Ahead of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit in January, there is utter confusion in the top corridors of power on whether to go ahead with the past practice of signing as many memorandum of understanding (MoUs) as possible to show the great success of Gujarat in inviting investments.
Even as Gujarat chief secretary A K Joti is learnt to have told officials during internal meetings to "at least reach the level of MoUs achieved during the last Vibrant Gujarat summit".The state industries department appears keen on what a senior bureaucrat said, "to put a stop to the rat race for (MoUs)", which characterized past summits.
Keenly involved in preparation for the next summit in January, this bureaucrat, requesting anonymity, told TOI that the "rat race" for MoUs in all past summits found its way at the time of "forwarding invitations" to invitees itself.
In fact, he objected to Joti asking officials to go ahead with MoUs, saying, "The chief minister himself has said there shouldn't be any emphasis on the past practice. Instead, we should go in for as many knowledge partnerships as possible, without caring for the numbers."
The bureaucrat said, "In the past, specific targets were handed over to all government departments, and bureaucrats were mandated to fulfill them. This was one of the major reasons why the value for which MoUs were signed up kept rising in exponentially, starting at a mere Rs 66,068.5 crore in 2003, reaching a whopping Rs 20,83,000 crore in 2011. Invitations for the inauguration ceremony were linked with those who would formally agree to sign MoUs. The bigger the amount, the closer you would be to the rostrum and the CM during the MoU signing ceremony, and vice versa."
The official said, "This was one big reason why those who wanted to pose as invitees would want to sign up for as high an amount MoU as possible. There were instances when those who did not have the capacity to invest Rs 300 crore, for instance, signed MoUs worth Rs 3,000 crore. There was also the view that, by signing an MoU, it would be possible to get cheaper land from the Gujarat government, which could be used for speculative purposes on a later date."
Suggesting the need for policy-makers to bring about a change in approach, the official said, "We found, after a scrutiny, that the number of MoUs and the amount for which these were signed did not match up. In fact, it brought bad publicity to Gujarat. Only 15 per cent of the total amount for which MoUs were signed in the 2009 summit (Rs 12,25,357 crore) has been implemented. Our scrutiny suggests, this 15 per cent amount covers 70 per cent of investors who had signed MoUs!"