To sign performance bond with presidency
Deficit now N825 billion
THE order is clear enough: Laggards, stragglers and slackers beware; there is no more room for you in government!
This much was evident in the submission of Special Adviser to the President on Performance Monitoring and Evaluation, Prof. Sylvester Monye, yesterday in Abuja at a high-level roundtable on Nigeria's economic transformation agenda.
According to Monye, as part of its quest for greater performance from federal ministries, plans are under way by the Presidency to commit all ministers to sign a performance contract with it.
The bond, which would be backed up with a performance contract policy, was adopted from those currently in operation in the United States (U.S.), United Kingdom (UK), Malaysia, New Zealand, India, Ghana and Kenya, where government officials are held accountable for what they do or fail to do in office.
Monye stressed that a set of main outcome indicators would be determined by the Presidency on which basis the ministers would be assessed.
He blamed the failure of governments in the past on lack of efficient machineries to implement programmes.
Meanwhile, although 66 per cent of its funding outlay has been released, the 2011 budget has only been implemented to the 57.03 per cent mark.
Minister of State for Finance, Yerima Ngama, disclosed this while briefing the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation on the level of implementation of the budget yesterday at the National Assembly.
Explaining the differences in the amount approved for release and the actual implementation level, Ngama said that some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) failed to meet the conditions and financial regulations required for cash-backing the releases and therefore could not secure the full amount of money approved for some projects.
The minister also informed the committee that government had been able to manage the deficit of the budget to an appreciable level.
He hinted that the deficit had been reduced from N1.6 trillion to N825 billion.
On the performance contract, Monye said: "Given the enormity of the responsibilities placed on government by the electorate, it can no longer be business as usual. Government priorities therefore, are to strengthen and stimulate the performance of government machinery in a relentless effort to ensure that its programmes yield desired outcome.
"This will necessitate that we change the way government works by consistently assessing performance for our initiatives in all spheres of government. It means also that government must continuously improve its service delivery capacity while promoting accountability on the part of those charged with the responsibility to deliver.
"There is no doubt that over the years, successive governments in the country have not been lacking in rolling out policies, programmes and initiatives. The problem, as has been noted in various quarters and at various times, is implementation.
"As a result, we are determined to improve the quality and standards of the services government delivered to the people. This can only be successful if we have an effective performance management system and efficient monitoring and evaluation machinery within government to assess the progress made in the key priority areas."
Monye also noted that the ministers' scorecards would be made available to the public to carry citizens along "so that they would be aware of the progress government makes and the challenges it faces in implementing its programmes."
Describing performance as the bottom-line of people's expectations of government, the former secretary of the National Planning Commission noted that bond would outline the required performance of concerned ministries, departments and agencies in two or three policy outcome areas and indicate, per outcome, the measurement of success.
Monye added: "The rationale for the performance contracts policy is the failure of government to deliver on the expectations of the people using the old system of management in the public service, which focuses on compliance with processes rather than results.
"Under the old scenario, government officials were confronted with multiple principles and goals that were often unclear. Therefore, in essence, they do not know what was really expected of them. In many cases, government officials felt they were not responsible for results and thus did not accept responsibility.
"Performance contract will promote transparency as it will be put on the Internet so that all can see and hold concerned agencies accountable."
On allegation of selective implementation of capital projects provided for in the budget, Ngama told the committee that government operated strict guidelines for the implementation of this category of projects, hence impossible for it to be selective as alleged.
And, defending a proposed N98.4 billion virement, the minister told the lawmakers that the new figure arose from human errors that might have been made during the preparation of the budget.
According to Ngama, the virement became imperative to correct these errors and allow for the easy implementation of the budget.
He stressed that there was nothing illegal about the proposal because the President had presented the request to the two chambers of the National Assembly, which were charged with the responsibility of approving the request.
The Guardian