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Editorial

Mid-term budgetary review is a good move

The task is to speed up and ensure quality of resource utilisation
6 February 2010, 18:00 PM
EDITORIAL
IT is encouraging that the finance ministry has carried out, for the very first time, a mid-term review of the current fiscal year's utilisation of ADP and revenue budget allocations. On the other hand, it is disappointing to note that ten major ministries could not even utilise 40 percent of their allocated resources. However, the mid-term exercise pertaining to utilisation of both the revenue and development budgets can serve in two ways: first, it keeps the nation posted on how the various ministries and departments of the government are performing or under-performing. Secondly, more to the point and operatively, the findings will hopefully help push the ministries to strive hard in the remainder of the year to fulfil the targets set for them. But then comes the question of quality which should not be compromised by way of hurrying things up. Budget is an instrument whereby public expenditures are made with the attendant benefits of employment generation, subsidisation of agriculture and above all infrastructure-related developments. So that it is not only the speed but also the quality of implementation that are crucial. The half-yearly review reveals that ministries of education and primary and mass education have come up with the best performance in terms of budgetary allocation implementation. But it has given the country quite a bit of disappointment where the performance of some major ministries is concerned. These ministries, with an allocation of 41.5 percent of the total national budget, have sadly failed to go beyond a 35.3 percent implementation of their budgetary provisions. Of course, attempts have been made to explain away such a performance through a reference to delays in tender processing and an absence of competent officials in the ministries. Unfortunately, such explanations may not sound credible in view of relaxation of the procurement policy and the administrative steps that were supposed to have been taken to speed up disbursement of fund. National budgets being the key to implementation of revenue and development objectives, it is important that the ministries, both at the political and administrative levels, ensure a swift, efficient and red-tape free utilisation of the allocations given them. Actually, greater co-ordination between the finance ministry and the line ministries will have to be ensured at the decision-making levels. At the operative levels, project implementation machinery needs to be revitalised with project directors being not subject to transfers. One final point, while periodic review should augur well for guidance, it is the implementation, monitoring and evaluation division (IMED) of the planning commission, which, if re-strengthened and empowered, could prove to be efficacious.

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