BY GEORGINA KEKEA
IN the 2019 Budge launch last week, a performance report on the country’s development budget was used as an example to show public officers and ministries on what is expected of them and how their spending are being monitored and appraised.
In the performance of the 2017 Development Budget (DB), ministries are rated according to how they implement their DB. The report revealed that the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID) has nine of its programs needing management attention in 2017, placing them in the ‘orange’ section while Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (MAL) has 12 of its program gone ‘off track’ with the Ministry flagged in the red section followed by the Ministry of Environment with six of its programs ‘gone off track’ also placing them in the red section.
National Judiciary, Justice and Legal Affairs and Office of the Governor General had not been able to verify their results as there was no submission given to the Ministry of Development Planning and Aid Coordination (MDPAC) thus they remain in the Blue section.
Most of the Ministries are placed in the ‘orange’ section, with a number of ministries also placed in the ‘red’ section.
The method used to measure this performance was done using the colours of green, yellow, red, orange and blue.
Green means a ministry is on track and progressing well (80 – 100 percent), while yellow means progressing with minor issues (60 percent), orange signifies not progressing well and needs management attention (40 – 59 percent) while red means a ministry or program is off track and needs management attention (20 – 39 percent) and blue is when a Ministry is unable to verify their spending.
The report revealed that only 16 programmes implemented by five ministries were rated yellow had been able to progress well but with minor issues. These were on-going programmes.
None of the ministries in 2017 are evaluated and rated “green” a poorer result than 2016, yet expenditure is higher in 2017.
27 programmes implemented by 13 ministries were rated orange and have been said to progress with significant Issues that require management attention while 31 projects and programmes implemented by five line ministries were rated red ‘Off-track’ needing urgent management attention.
A total of 13 programmes implemented by five ministries were rated blue, unable to verify results, as no report was submitted to MDPAC.
“Programmes that continued to rated “Red” and “Blue” for a consecutive period of time over must be considered for exiting as they face significant issues showing a likelihood of interventions that will fail without achieving their targets,” it was reported.
The presentation also revealed that one of the main issues highlighted in the 2017 report with “orange” rated programmes (31 percent), is the level of compliance with the SIG Procurement processes and on-going “land issues’ for infrastructure related programmes. These programmes also reported MoFT delays in payments. A number of activities were on-going activities from 2016.
Some key issues also highlighted are the capacity of a ministry to implement its programmes, programme and project appraisal, ongoing delays by Central Tender Board (CTB) to meet as per procurement process but to name a few.
Government officials and Ministries are therefore urged and reminded to improve in how they utilise their budget and report their spending because their budgets and programs and activities are subjected for monitoring and appraisal.
