Haryana to set up state-of-art institute under FRBM Act

By Haryananewswire

CHANDIGARH JULY 9

The Haryana Government has a proposal to set up a State of Art Institute of Fiscal Policy under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act for contributing in the process of policy-making relating to public finance. This Institute would also have an advanced center on planning and evaluation where training related to Results Framework Document (RFD) would be imparted.

          This was revealed in an International Workshop on Performance Management in the United States and World Bank organized with the assistance of Performance Management Division, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India here today.

Director of Performance Excellence of the United States of America, Department of Commerce Ms Christina Helfin and Leader of the Public Performance Global Expert Team and Head for Public Sector Institutional Reform, World Bank Mr. William L. Dorotinsky were the key speakers in the workshop.

Mr William Dorotinsky suggested the Principal Secretary, Finance Mr. Sanjeev Kaushal that financial and technical guidance for setting up of this State of Art Institute could be sought from International Monitoring Fund (IMF) of the World Bank through Union Ministry of Finance.

          In the inaugural address, Additional Chief Secretary, Public Works Department Mr. S.C Chaudhary said that Haryana is the among the few States in the Country who have implemented Performance Management in government departments. He said that RFD was being implemented in 39 Departments of Haryana since the last year only and has a plan to extend it to the level of districts from this year. To bring more transparency and openness in the process, annual citizen’s satisfaction survey would be conducted, which would display most of the financial and performance information. For this purpose, the State Government has already engaged Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) under Empowerment Scheme of Planning Department.

          Mr. Chaudhary apprised the experts from US and World Bank that Haryana is witnessing a revolution in the areas of agriculture which is the back bone of our economy, education, sports, health and social welfare sector. Haryana ranks at the top in per capita income among leading States in the country. He said that the present system of Five Year Plan and its evaluation being not so effective, the State Government has decided to improve it as it would have direct bearing on the process and outcome of development. He hoped that the deliberations in this workshop would further help in enriching RFD implemented by the State Government.

          In his welcome note, Haryana Principal Secretary, Finance Mr. Sanjeev Kaushal said that the State Government had implemented the Performance Management and Evaluation System (PMES) for its Administrative Departments last year in the presence of Secretary, Performance Management, Government of India, Dr Prajapati Trivedi. He said that under the system, each department is evaluated in the mid or end of  each financial year. He said that the committee constituted under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary would start the review work of RFD of 39 departments within a fortnight.

          Director of Performance Excellence of the US Department of Commerce, Ms Christina Helfin said that since the passage of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) in the year 1993, the federal government has gradually expanded the use of performance management techniques, culminating with the GPRA Modernization Act of 2010 which provides workable framework. She also credited the success of Mr. Obama’s administration to this Act and said that it is a comprehensive tool of measuring performance management.

She said that Office of Management and Budget  (OMB) has a pivotal role in the implementation of the Act and also in the leadership of entire performance system.  Ms Christina said that with the successful implementation of GPRA Modernization Act, the crime rate in USA has reduced considerably which is considered as a blot on any country. She also complemented India for effectively implementing PMS.

          Leader of the Public Performance Global Expert Team and Head for Public Sector Institutional Reform, World Bank Mr. William L. Dorotinsky said that the real impact of any performance system is a function of how much it changes the behaviour. He said that performance objectives and drivers in almost all the countries were being undertaking by the Finance Ministry. The recent financial crisis globally has adversely affected the performance management and efficiency in all areas, he added.  Mr. William Dorotinsky stressed the need to keep the system lean and to concentrate more on quality rather than the quantity. More complex the system is, lesser the impact of output, he further added.

          Additional Principal Secretaries to Chief Minister namely Mr. S.S Dhillon and  Dr. K.K. Khandelwal, Additional Chief Secretaries , Principal Secretaries and Heads of various departments of Haryana also attended the workshop.