Dear Guru,Thank you for your views. What you say is very correct. I would like to add my two-bits to the deabte. I believe there are two aspects of Governance, one non-performance (which has a huge cost) and the other corruption. One of the major problem in Govt project management is that, no officer is penalised for non-performance (maximum penalty is a transfer) and there are no promotional incentives, except perhaps a pat on the back. I have come across a case, where a Civil Surgeon (who heads NRHM Programme in district) sat on a  file for allocation of funds to blocks, because he had an ego clash with the District Collector, who had asked questions on the same. Rather than satisfying the officer, Civil Surgeon chose not to allocate the funds at all, simply because he knew nothing of consequence would happen to him for not spending the money rec\'d for a programme. Several senior officers who are about to retire, prefer to keep status quo since they are afraid that decision-making may result in audit issues. Several of them show  non-spending\' as their certificate of honesty. The Appraisal system needs a total relook. In addition to man-management, I believe if anyone is interested in reducing corruption in Govt. systems, institutional reforms using technology would go a long way. All of us know how the reservation system in Indian Railways has minimised corruption in booking of tickets, at least for the common man. I know there are still problems in VIP quota, however overall the problem has become much better than earlier.  Another major improvement has been in Income Tax Refunds. For last 2-3 years, most persons get refunds directly credited in their bank accounts. Huge amount of funds will be refunded (one estimate is that during current year Rs 1.20 lakh crores are likely to be refunded). We all know how difficult it was to get even small refund from Income Tax dept. without greasing several palms, and now such large amounts are getting credited directly in the bank accounts. I believe such measures of automation and transparency would also help reduce corruption. Govt\'s decision to go for e-procurment, as well as Direct Cash Transfers to beneficiaries are likely to also help in this regard.However the Govt. is so huge and so all-pervasive (Central Govt, state Govts   local govts.), that any such measures hardly seem to be a drop in the ocean. warm rgdssubhash