#PMEAC

Prioritising  is  not  Easy  !

Monitoring is even more difficult  !

PM’s Economic Advisory Council met 2 days back and listed following 10 priority areas to work on [ Source : Economic Times / 12  Oct  ]

·         Economic Growth

·         Employment and Job Creation

·         Informal Sector and Integration

·         Fiscal Framework

·         Monetary Policy

·         Public Expenditure

·         Institutions of Economic Governance

·         Agriculture and Animal Husbandry

·         Patterns of Consumption and Production

·         Social Sector

“ The entire thrust of the Council will be on giving  SPECIFIC  IMPLEMENTABLE recommendations to the PM after consulting all stakeholder ministries “, Bibek Debroy, Chairman of the council, said after its first meeting on Wednesday

Business Line ( 12 Oct ) adds :

Addressing the media after the meeting , Bibek Debroy said :

“ Our entire thrust would be on IMPLEMENTABLE decisions .

Our views on the ten identified areas would be on SPECIFIC THINGS that you can change tomorrow 

……. Five members of the EAC will take the responsibility of MONITORING the ten actionable areas  “

Dear Members of PM-EAC  :

Congratulations on your approach – especially on your emphasis on :

·         Setting SPECIFIC IMPLEMENTABLE targets for each Ministry

·         MONITORING the actual performance against the targeted performance

In this regard , I urge you to read my following blog ( earlier sent as email ) :

Monday, 4 September 2017

Clash of  RTI  vs  RTP

RTI   =   ( Citizen’s ) Right  to  Information

RTP  =    ( Government’s ) Right to Privacy

Yesterday , PM Shri Modiji reshuffled his cabinet  by :

·         inducting 9 new faces ( considered to have “ potential for performance “ )

·         getting rid of 7 old faces ( considered to have “ poor performance “ )

·         promoting 4 old faces ( appraised as having “ good performance “ )

·         laterally transferred Suresh Prabhu ( believed to have suffered “ bad luck “ )

Understandably , we will never get to see their “ Score Cards “ ( Privacy ? )

But here is my guess as to how these ministers got their performance evaluated

Possibly , Shri Modiji fixed for them SPECIFIC  MEASURABLE  ACHIEMENT  TARGETS , at the beginning of their tenures , as suggested in my following blog ( sent as email on 06 DEC  2014 ) , and got some outside / impartial THIRD PARTY to evaluate their ACTUAL ACHIEVEMENTS :

06  Dec  2014

BUDGETING     BY    OBJECTIVES

Dear Shri Jaitley ,

Come Feb 2015 and you will present your Budget in Lok Sabha

You will allocate thousands of crores of rupees to different ministries , for spending during 2015-16

You may even increase / decrease their allocations based on , to what extent ( % ) did they manage to actually " spend" their current year's allocations

The one and only emphasis is on " spending " !

As usual , no MP will ask :

"  But , what exactly did the Minister concerned achieve by spending this money  ?

What physical / measureable targets did the Minister succeed in reaching / exceeding , with that money  ?  Where / What are the  OUTPUTS  ?

Why is it that no targets were set in advance, before the start of the year ?

How come , Minister was allowed to shoot first and then draw concentric circles around the hole afterwards ( at the end of the year ) , to claim BULL'S EYE  ?  "

In private sector , shareholders / bankers do not hesitate to sack the CMD / MD / CEO , if he fails to deliver on promised profit

Then , why are Ministers allowed to retain their posts ( - or even get kicked upstairs ! ), despite failing to deliver  ?

Dear Shri Jaitley :

MPs should know that YOU cannot answer these questions , simply because , at the time of the Budget Exercise , no physical OUTPUTS  got fixed for each Minister

What did get fixed , were only EXPENDITURE TARGETS  !

Simply because MPs passed the Budget without fixing targets such as following for 31 March 2015 :

=================================

*  Finance Minister

   #   GDP ..... 6 % ............ [ 10 % improvement  ]

   #   CAD.......( -  ) 5 % .....[  20 % improvement ]

=================================

*  Commerce Minister

   #   Exports........ $ 350 Billion  ....  [ 10 % improvement   ]

   #   FDI..............$    50 Billion...... [  20 % improvement  ]

=================================

*   Railway Minister

    #   Lengths of Tracks...... 125,000 Km.....      [  Up by 10 %  ]

    #   No of Passenger Trains / day..... 10,000... [ Up by 10 %   ]

=================================

*   Health Minister

   #   Chronic Hunger and Hunger Related Deaths

         8 Million / year .................................... [  Down by 20 %  ]

   #   Under-nourished people..... 200 million..... [ Down by 10 %  ]

=================================

*   Social Welfare Minister

    #    Dowery Deaths / year....... 8,000...... ......[  Down by 10 %  ]

    #    People without Toilets........ 500 Million....  [ Down by  20 % ]

=================================

*   Agriculture Minister

    #    Farmers Suicide/ year..... .. 14,000...............  [ Down by 20 %  ]

    #    Food Grain rotting / year..... 5 Million tons.....  [ Down by 20 %   ]

=================================

So on and so forth for each Minister

Some caution / suggestions :

*    Ignore the numbers given above. I could be factually wrong

*    Focus on the concept of " Management by Objectives "

*    Overcome the fear of " failure to meet the targets ".

*    Overcome the fear of " being ridiculed " !

*    Don't chop off the neck that dares to stick out  !

*    Only failure is , not fixing the targets  !

*    Actual vs Targeted achievements must be measured , on an on-going

      basis , by totally independent THIRD PARTY agencies

      Ministers / Finance Minister and these Agencies , must agree in

      advance , how the agencies will go about " measuring " the Actual

      Achievements

     

      The method of measurement must be transparent and well publicized

      in advance

      Agencies shall have no role in fixing of Annual Targets

      That is best done by the PRIME MINISTER - the CEO , MakeInIndia

*    There must be at least 10 performance parameters for each Minister

*    Parameters themselves could be selected / prioritized , based on an

      ONLINE PUBLIC SURVEY / OPINION POLL , from Govt web site

*    If conducting such an ONLINE POLL for the forthcoming budget is

      too late , same could be done on a printed form , by current MPs /

      MLAs / Rajya Sabha Members

*    Results of the SURVEY / POLL , must be published


=======================================================

There is no way to find out whether PM had actually set for his ministers , any

QUANTIFIABLE  TARGETS or not

But the citizens have only themselves to blame for failing to come out with a, citizen’s

   CHARTER  OF  DEMANDS  [  COD  ] ,

clearly laying down TARGETS  expected to be achieved by each and every Minister , till 2019 elections

Now , don’t expect political parties in OPPOSITION to frame such a COD

They are still hoping (against hope ? ) – to come back into power in 2019 , and do not want to say / do , any foolish things to come back to haunt them !

It is the duty of organizations such as CII – FICCI – ASSOCHAM – ADR ( Association for Democratic Reforms ) , and various THINK TANKS , to initiate this process

13  Oct  2017

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