Workshop on Government Performance Management for SAARC countries begins tomorrow

A two-day workshop on Government performance management for senior policy makers from SAARC countries gets under way here tomorrow. The workshop aimed at sharing the knowledge and experience on Government Performance Management practices in SAARC countries, would be inaugurated by the Cabinet Secretary, Shri K.M. Chandrasekhar. It would be attended by the Secretary General of SAARC, Shri Sheel Kant Sharma alongwith the senior officials from India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The SAARC workshop is intended to provide an overview of the international trends in public sector management and tools and techniques for implementing a results-based management framework in governments of SAARC countries. It will also demonstrate the usefulness of these tools and techniques by applying them to select departments and ministries in SAARC countries represented in the workshop.

The deliberations over the next two days would help in capacity building of senior Government representatives for setting up a Government Performance Management system in the SAARC countries. Besides, the workshop is also expected to explore institutional arrangements for sharing the best practices in Government Performance Management across SAARC countries on an on-going basis.

The workshop faculty consists of a mix of practitioners and academicians including Member, Planning Commission, Arun Maira, Prof. Raghuram and Prof. Pangotra of IIM Ahmedabad. Among the senior Government officials, Secretary Performance Management, Cabinet secretariat and Joint Secretaries in the Ministry of Power and Rural Development would be participating alongwith the senior representatives from National Informatics Centre.

The SAARC Workshop on Government Performance Management is being organized by India in response to a decision taken at the meeting of Cabinet Secretaries from SAARC Countries held in November 2009. It is a result of considerable interest to India’s swift implementation of a sophisticated Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System for Government departments.

Origins of India’s widely acclaimed Government Performance Management system can be traced to the announcement made in the President’s address to both Houses of the Parliament on June 4, 2009. Pursuant to this announcement, the Prime Minister approved the outline of the Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System (PMES) for Government Departments on September 11, 2009. The essence of PMES is as follows: At the beginning of each financial year, with the approval of the Minister concerned, each Department prepares a Results-Framework Document (RFD) consisting of the priorities set out by the Ministry concerned and the Minister in-charge decides the inter-se priority among the departmental objectives.

In order to achieve results commensurate with the priorities listed in the Results-Framework document, the Minister in-charge approves the proposed activities and schemes for the Ministry/Department. The Ministers incharge also approve the corresponding success indicators (Key Result Areas- KRAS or Key Performance Indicators-KPIs) and time bound targets to measure progress in achieving these objectives.

It was decided that in Phase I of implementation (2009-2010) 59 ministries/ departments out of a total of 84 will be covered under PMES. For the year 2010-2011, 62 departments and ministries have already prepared their respective RFDs. Details regarding the RFDs and PMES are available at www.performance.gov.in.

The deliberations over the next two days are expected to go a long way in learning from the best practices and the experiences in the Government Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Systems for the benefit of SAARC member countries towards an effective, efficient and transparent governance.

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AKT/LV