Discretion is no less then empowerment, taking it away is a symptom of al least two things (1) not trusting the staff, no doubt the scroungers will pull the wool over their eyes (2) applying the rules and not caring about the spirit of the rules. When I was on the council in Peterborough 1977-83 if a case could be made local staff had discretion, this is totally gone. When staff doing the appraisals are no longer public servants but employees of, say G4S they may be in no position to even show sympathy, and over time as the TUPE's staff leave they will be replaced with harder nosed people who are just happy to have a job.
Part 2 - Assess - Timeline - Present - Poor Governance