Public sector performance to be tied to results

With the aim of improving perfor mance in public entities, the Finance Ministry has stressed the need for all planning activities of state institutions to be tied to results.

Asserting that effective performance- oriented public sector management is an integral part of improving quality services, State Minister for Finance Eran Wickramaratne noted that the public service in Sri Lanka at present is mostly evaluated and funded on the basis of how much spent, rather than on actual outcomes on performances.

"These services are financed with tax payers' money. Therefore it is important that information on actual benefits is made available to the public and budgetary allocations are tied to outcomes," he told the Business Times.

He added that a system that links pay to key performance indicator ( KPI) is essential to promote and bind accountability in the public sector.

"In wage hikes granted for public sector workers by previous governments, the losses of the public enterprises are generally linked to a workforce whose wages are not linked to performance," he added.

Meanwhile in a circular issued to secretaries of ministries, Director General of the National Budget Department, K. D. S. Ruwanchandra noted that the government is taking steps to practise the performance based budgeting system and it will create substantial differences in financial and non financial resource allocations to state sector institutions.

The spending agencies have been directed to identify out- puts and targets for the financial resources already allocated for 2018.

He added that action will be taken to create a performance culture in every state institution in the future once the performance management is fully operational.

As a major step towards this end, the Director General of the National Budget Department has directed all state institutions furnish details on their major tasks and outputs as included in the budget estimate, quality standards and time period required for project implementation.

It is also required to shift from resource based documentation of inputs, processes and actions to performance based documentation of outputs, outcome and impacts.

National Budget Department has directed all state institutions furnish details on their major tasks and outputs as included in the budget estimate, quality standards and time period required for project implementation.