A panel established to review the functioning of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), following the 2G spectrum issue, has suggested auctioning spectrum in the future.
The committee also wants DoT to frame a standard operating procedure for granting licences and spectrum allocation. The committee was set up by Ministry of Telecommunications and IT after the Justice Shivraj Patil panel highlighted several issues in the working of the department.
It has suggested 15 points to resolve the issues, along with guiding principles for drafting revised procedures to bring in more transparency.
In its draft recommendations, the committee has said, ?Simple, standardised, and transparent processes must be put in place to increase the certainty and credibility of the licensing and spectrum allocation policies and procedures.?
Justice Patil had pointed out several instances of flawed procedures followed by DoT since 2001. To address this, the committee has suggested a standard operating procedure (SoP). ?The SoP may include procedures to be followed by various branches of DoT in dealing with the granting of licences and allotment of spectrum,? it said, adding that adequate staff should be posted in the licensing wing to process applications in a time-bound manner.
The 2G spectrum issue has raised several questions pertaining to DoT?s functioning. The Comptroller and Auditor General had alleged that DoT officials had arbitrarily changed procedures to suit a set of applicants. For example, the first-come-first-served policy was interpreted so that the companies which submitted the entry fee first were priority instead of those who had actually applied first.
