Govt asks ministries to rate their performance

All ministries have been asked to establish a performance monitoring system - summarising the main objective of the ministry and corresponding action during the year.

In a move that would enhance the efficiency in functioning of various government departments and the bureaucracy,the government has finally decided to rate the performance of various ministries. All ministries have been asked by the Cabinet Secretariat to establish a Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System (PMES) and prepare a results framework document,summarising the main objective of the ministry and corresponding action during the year.

In a note sent to all departments,the Cabinet Secretariat has asked the ministries to move the focus from process orientation to results orientation and provide a fair basis to evaluate departments overall performance at the end of the year,sources told The Indian Express.

According to the programme,which has been approved by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,a results framework document has to be prepared and record the agreed objectives,policies,programmes and projects of the ministry and rate them on the basis of parameters and indicators approved by the Cabinet Secretariat. The objective of the ministries have to be directly related to achievement and support of relevant national objectives stated in five-year plans,national flagships schemes and the Presidents address,among other things.

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As per the directive,every ministry will have to prepare a vision and mission document and assign relative weights to the objectives. Accordingly,they will have to specify success indicators,or parameters for measuring the performance of the department. The target would be a five point scale ranging from 100 per cent weight for excellent performance to 60 per cent for poor performance.

All the ministries are expected to submit their respective performance framework by November 30.

The draft of these programmes have to be prepared by every department at the beginning of each financial year,based on the proposed budgetary allocations for the year. Thereafter,the Cabinet Secretariat will have a look at these drafts and finalise them by March 31.

After six months,the results would be reviewed by a Committee on Government Performance,consisting of the finance secretary,expenditure secretary,Planning Commission secretary,Cabinet secretary and secretaries of other departments concerned. This will also enable us to factor in unforeseen situations like drought,natural calamities,etc, sources said. The results will have to be finalised by May every year.

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The ministries will have to provide values for performance over the past two years for every indicator and will also have to project values for two years in the future. At the end of the year,the Secretariat would evaluate the performance and compare achievements with targets and determine the composite score.

We will see the degree to which the government department in question have been able to meet the objective, sources added.