AN IDEA OF ACCOUNTABILITY

AN   OBJECTIVE   GOVERNMENT   ?

 

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05 DEC  2014 :

I sent to Shri Jaitleyji , my following blog :

BUDGETING     BY    OBJECTIVES

https://myblogepage.blogspot.in/2014/12/budgeting-by-objectives.html

In that email , I urged that in his  Feb 2015  Budget , he shift the emphasis from  :

 “  Spending ( Expenditure )  “  to  “ Objectives ( Outcomes ) “

In my email , I gave some illustrations of “ Quantifiable / Measurable Objectives “ as follows :


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*  FINANCE  MINISTER

*   GDP ..... 6 % ............ [ 10 % improvement ]

             *   CAD.......( -  ) 5 % .....[ 20 % improvement ]

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*  COMMERCE  MINISTER

            *   Exports........ $ 350 Billion  ....  [ 10 % improvement  ]

            *   FDI..............$    50 Billion...... [  20 % improvement  ]

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 *   RAILWAY   MINISTER

            *   Lengths of Tracks...... 125,000 Km.....         [  Up by 10 %  ]

            *   No of Passenger Trains / day..... 10,000... [ Up by 10 % ]


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*   HEALTH   MINISTER

            *   Chronic Hunger and Hunger Related Deaths

                  8 Million / year .................................... [  Down by 20 %  ]

            *   Under-nourished people..... 200 million..... [ Down by 10 % ]


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*   SOCIAL   WELFARE   MINISTER

            *    Dowery Deaths / year....... 8,000...... ...... [  Down by 10 %  ]

            *    People without Toilets........ 500 Million....  [  Down by  20 % ]

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*   AGRICULTURE   MINISTER

            *    Farmers Suicide/ year..... .. 14,000...............  [ Down by 20 %  ]

            *    Food Grain rotting / year..... 5 Million tons.....  [ Down by 20 %   ]

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14  MONTHS  LATER 

 In Global Business Summit (29  Jan  2016 ) , Shri Jaitleyji said :

“We will introduce Structural Reforms in the forthcoming Union Budget "

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24  MONTHS  LATER  :

Business Line ( 07 Dec 2016 ) carried following report :

" Outcome Budget norms tightened; Deadlines will be set to meet Objectives "

" In order to improve the quality of public expenditure, the Finance Ministry has tightened norms under which each ministry and department will have to prepare an Outcome Budget in consultation with NITI Aayog to achieve certain OBJECTIVES within a TIME FRAME .

As per the Ministry’s directions, every ministry will have to prepare an Outcome Budget statement linking outlays against each scheme as well as project with the DELIVERABLES and medium term OUTCOMES .

A Finance Ministry official, involved in Budget making, said every “allocation for scheme/project will be against a firm set of DELIVERABLES which will need to be adhered to”.

The ‘Outcome Budget’ is to be prepared after finalisation of the estimates for budgetary allocation, the official added.

“The OUTPUTS/ DELIVERABLESV should be mandatorily given in MEASURABLE / QUANTITATIVE terms based on parameters and deliverables DECIDED IN ADVANCE in consultation with Department of Expenditure and NITI Aayog,” the official said.

Through “outcome-based budgeting”, the Ministry is trying to shift from traditional performance-based budgeting by planning expenditure, fixing appropriate TARGETS and QUANTIFYING DELIVERABLES of each scheme.

The outcome-based one will outline what can be achieved with what is being spent and will involve the process of defining the desired long-term outcome of schemes of various ministries. "

 


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38  MONTHS  LATER

Now , in just presented Budget 2018 , I find that Shri Jaitleyji has set following OUTCOMES :


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Ayushman Bharat Health Insurance Scheme

#   Cover 10 crore families (50 crore persons) for Rs 5 Lakh


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Ujjwala Yojana

#   Free LPG cylinders to 8 crore poor women (up from 5 crore)


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Saubhagya Yojna

#   Free Electrical connection (not free electricity) to 4 crore families


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Farmers MSP

#   50 % more than cost of production 


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Gramin Agricultural Markets

#   Develop and upgrade existing 22,000 rural haats



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Organic farming

#   Set up large clusters, preferably of 1000 hectares each

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Agri Exports 

#   To increase from US $ 30 Billion to US $ 100 Billion


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Kisan Urja Suraksha Utthan Maha Abhiyan [ KUSUM]

#   To convert 30 million farm pumps ( 10 million running on diesel and 20 million running on grid-supplied electricity ) to Solar Pumps , to generate 10,000 MW of Solar Power ( surplus of which farmers can “ Sell “ back to DISCOMS )


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Swachh Bharat Mission

#  Government is planning to construct around 2 crore toilets. 


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Prime Minister Awas Scheme

#  Rural > 51 lakhs houses in year 2017-18 and 51 lakh houses during 2018-19

#  Urban > To construct 37 lakh houses.

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Prime Minister Krishi Sinchai Yojna- Har Khet ko Pani 

#  96 deprived irrigation districts where less than 30% of the land holdings gets assured irrigation presently


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Employment

#  Create employment of 321 crore person days


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Rural Roads

#   3.17 lakh kilometres 


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Right to Education Act

#  More than 13 lakh untrained teachers to get trained.


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Ekalavya Model Residential School

#  In every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal persons



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Schools of Planning and Architecture

#  18 new SPAs would be established in the IITs and NITs


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Prime Minister’s Research Fellows (PMRF)’’ Scheme

#  1,000 best B.Tech students each year from premier institutions and provide them facilities to do Ph.D in IITs and IISc, with a handsome fellowship 


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Quality Medical Education

#   Setting up 24 new Government Medical Colleges and Hospitals 


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Prime Minister Jan Dhan Yojana

#  Bringing all sixty crore basic accounts within its fold


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Finally, we see a “ Change of Attitude “ on part of the Ministers / Bureaucrats

An attitude of holding themselves “ personally accountable “ , not only to the Prime Minister but to the entire nation !

Accountable for actual achievements against “ quantifiable / measurable “ targets set at the beginning of the year

This “ ATTITUDINAL  CHANGE “ is a reform which is much bigger than De-Monetization or GST  ! Its beneficial effects will continue to be felt for decades to come !

I hope this is just the beginning and by April 2018 , Shri Jaitleyji will put in place a mechanism that answers the following issues that I had raised in my email to him , 38 MONTHS ago :


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“ Actual vs Targeted “ achievements must be measured , on an on-going basis , by totally independent THIRD PARTY agencies

Ministers / Finance Minister and these Agencies , must agree in advance , how the Agencies will go about " measuring " the Actual Achievements

The method of measurement must be transparent and well publicized in advance

Agencies shall have no role in fixing of Annual Targets 

*   There must be at least 10 performance parameters for each Minister

*    Parameters themselves could be selected / prioritized, based on an,

      ONLINE PUBLIC SURVEY / OPINION POLL , from Govt web site

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MEASUREMENT OF ACTUAL  ACHIEVEMENTS : 

In  March 2015 , government launched a web site ,

https://pragati.nic.in/pragati/loginPage#nb  

with a banner that reads :

“ Pro Active Governance and Timely Implementation “ 

It records “ Minutes of Monthly Meetings “ held by PM with the officers of the concerned Ministries for reviewing the progress of implementation of various projects

Unfortunately, one cannot make any sense out of these “Minutes“in respect of ,

*   percentage completion (against target)

*   probability of achieving target

For ease of understanding by even ordinary citizens, I suggest that each concerned Ministry (responsible / accountable), put up on its web site, a graph such as following illustration.

This graph should be updated with a dotted line (representing actual cumulative achievement) below the solid line (representing cumulative targets) for each month of 2018-19:

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06  Feb  2018 

www.hemenparekh.in / blogs