Outcome Budget - outlays do not necessarily mean outcomes
• I must caution that outlays do not necessarily mean outcomes.
• The people of the country are concerned with outcomes.
• The prime minister has repeatedly emphasised the need to improve the quality of implementation and enhance the efficiency and accountability of the delivery mechanism
• During the course of the year, together with the Planning Commission, we shall put in place a mechanism to measure the development outcomes of all major programmes.
• We shall also ensure that programmes and schemes are not allowed to continue indefinitely from one Plan period to the next without an independent and in-depth evaluation.
• The civil society should also engage the government in a healthy debate on the efficiency of the delivery mechanism.
• At the end of the year, we should ask not how much has been spent, but what has been achieved.
These are extracts from the FM’s Budget speech and this is what the outcome budget is all about.
By May 2006, we will have the first quantifiable indication on just how the government is spending its money.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s outcome budget as of now covers only plan expenditure and which in due course will cover even non plan expenditure.
The document lists clearly-defined deliverables for each scheme/programme, its budgetary outlay, processes and timelines, as well as risk factors in meeting the target. The HRD ministry was most honest when it reported that the usefulness of the Navodaya Vidyalaya Schools cannot be judged – by results alone.
61 ministries/departments have listed their schemes and programmes in a detailed document running into 723 pages. The intention is that the "Outcome Budget is expected to reflect the Annual Budget in terms of intended outcome" Mr. Chidambaram informed the Parliament. In fact, it will now become an integral part of the budgetary process with actual outcomes for scheme-wise expenditure being announced in May each year.
The FM later told reporters that the outcome budget is a "pre-expenditure instrument" where ministries would look at spending through the prism of outcomes. And that some state governments would also start such a process.
The present Outcome Budget does not include expenditures of nine ministries, such as Defence, External Affairs, Department of Atomic Energy and Parliamentary Affairs.
The Outcome Budget is a step to “Strengthen the citizen's right to information”
While in the next Outcome Budget we will know if the targets are met, the FM did not tell the country as to what he is going to do if they are not.
The FM was candid in stating that “this is not a perfect document" and "things will get better". Hope they do.