Civic budget will be oriented on performance

When the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation releases its budget for 2009-10, the civic departments will not only have a framework of the projects and policies but also a detailed guideline...

When the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC releases its budget for 2009-10, the civic departments will not only have a framework of the projects and policies but also a detailed guideline and timeline of the initiatives which will be required to be completed before the budgeted amount gets exhausted.

This richest municipal corporation in the country, with an estimated annual budget of Rs 16,000 crore, will now have an output or performance-oriented budget wherein the departments will be 8216;required8217; to achieve targets set in the budget.

As a pilot project, five departments 8212; water supply, solid waste management, health, education and roads8212;iquest; will have a result-oriented framework in governance drawn by Delhi-based research and training organisation, Society for Development Studies which has been appointed by the BMC.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Projects Anil Diggikar said the final result of the pilot will be ready by early January. 8220;Civic officials from the chosen departments have already discussed and set the policies for the budget,8221; he said. 8220;If the tasks are not achieved then the projects and schemes will be reviewed twice annually and the road blocks will be removed. With this, we hope to achieve the output of the budgeted works.8221;

The output budgeting is BMC8217;s answer to its critics who slam the civic administration and its babus for under-utilisation of budgeted funds and ineffective implementation of projects. At present, it spends 47 per cent of the budget on salaries of its employees and administrative works while the remaining 53 per cent is marked for infrastructure and capital works. However, only part of the 53 per cent gets utilised annually.

The organisation will study these departments and develop a performance index upon which the various civic schemes and projects will be evaluated and their actual implementation on ground assessed. Each department will have a baseline benchmark for its projects which it will have to achieve.

The study will include formulating output indicators, devising a specialised training module for civic employees, and developing an integrated outcome-oriented performance matrix for each department. The first phase of the 8216;output budget mechanism8217;, undertaking workshops with civic officials to draw parametres and prioritise work from their respective departments is completed.

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8220;The second phase is in progress wherein roadblocks in the implementation of ambitious projects and policies will be identified and solutions to achieve them in the allotted timeframe drafted,8221; Diggikar said.