09-08-2004, 04:20 PM
PM's first memo to ministers,, much in style of the corporate world, I'd say its a refreshing idea to start with
Ministers told to outline six priority objectives
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http//www.dawn.com/2004/09/08/top3.htm
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, Sept 7 Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has directed all federal ministers, ministers of state and federal secretaries to submit by Sept 11 their six-point priority goals along with their proposed implementation deadlines.
A senior official of the prime minister's secretariat told Dawn on Tuesday that a letter had been sent to all the ministers and secretaries reminding them of the prime minister's speech to the cabinet members last week in which he had told the ministers to work with full dedication and time bound targets for achieving results. They have also been asked to give their proposed strategies to implement these targets.
He said all the ministers and secretaries would submit their six-point agenda and their implementation time line which would be reviewed by the prime minister at a meeting next week. The ministers and secretaries would attend the meeting.
He said the agenda and their implementation strategies would be approved by the prime minister with modifications, if so required, and would be given quarterly deadlines to meet those targets. The quarterly meetings to be presided over by the prime minister would examine the implementation status and approve targets for the next quarter.
The official said that the purpose of the exercise was to minimize red-tapism in the functioning of the government, introduce good governance and make full and effective utilization of the public sector development programme for reducing poverty and increasing employment opportunities through broad-based development.
He said the government had already directed all the ministries and divisions to incur 25 per cent expenditure of the development budget by Sept 30, 2004, to ensure maximum budget utilization during the current fiscal year.
Furthermore, all the ministries and divisions have also been authorised to incur 40 per cent expenditure of their current budgets during the first half (July 1-Dec 31) of the current fiscal year, 2004-05.
The sources said the government had been under criticism for low utilization of development allocations during first two to three quarters of each fiscal year that later resulted in bulk releases in the fourth quarter. This practice compromised the quality of funding utilization.
The government has to face questions every now and then that there is no use for announcing higher allocations for the development budget when real utilization remains usually low due to deterioration of the implementation capacity both at the federal and provincial levels.
It has, therefore, been decided by the government to authorise the federal secretaries to utilize 25 per cent of the development budget in each quarter so as to ensure maximum utilization of public sector development programme (PSDP) every year.
The government has already empowered the federal secretaries/principal accounting officers to utilize up to 50 per cent and 45 per cent of the social sector and other development allocations without prior approval of the ministry of finance.
In 11 months of the last fiscal year, the total utilization had amounted to about 54 per cent of the total allocation but remaining 46 per cent funds were utilized in the month of June 2004.
"Allah does not change the state of people unless they change what is within themselves" Quran 1311
Edited by - pracs on Sep 08 2004 112259 AM
Ministers told to outline six priority objectives
-------------------------------------------------
http//www.dawn.com/2004/09/08/top3.htm
By Our Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD, Sept 7 Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has directed all federal ministers, ministers of state and federal secretaries to submit by Sept 11 their six-point priority goals along with their proposed implementation deadlines.
A senior official of the prime minister's secretariat told Dawn on Tuesday that a letter had been sent to all the ministers and secretaries reminding them of the prime minister's speech to the cabinet members last week in which he had told the ministers to work with full dedication and time bound targets for achieving results. They have also been asked to give their proposed strategies to implement these targets.
He said all the ministers and secretaries would submit their six-point agenda and their implementation time line which would be reviewed by the prime minister at a meeting next week. The ministers and secretaries would attend the meeting.
He said the agenda and their implementation strategies would be approved by the prime minister with modifications, if so required, and would be given quarterly deadlines to meet those targets. The quarterly meetings to be presided over by the prime minister would examine the implementation status and approve targets for the next quarter.
The official said that the purpose of the exercise was to minimize red-tapism in the functioning of the government, introduce good governance and make full and effective utilization of the public sector development programme for reducing poverty and increasing employment opportunities through broad-based development.
He said the government had already directed all the ministries and divisions to incur 25 per cent expenditure of the development budget by Sept 30, 2004, to ensure maximum budget utilization during the current fiscal year.
Furthermore, all the ministries and divisions have also been authorised to incur 40 per cent expenditure of their current budgets during the first half (July 1-Dec 31) of the current fiscal year, 2004-05.
The sources said the government had been under criticism for low utilization of development allocations during first two to three quarters of each fiscal year that later resulted in bulk releases in the fourth quarter. This practice compromised the quality of funding utilization.
The government has to face questions every now and then that there is no use for announcing higher allocations for the development budget when real utilization remains usually low due to deterioration of the implementation capacity both at the federal and provincial levels.
It has, therefore, been decided by the government to authorise the federal secretaries to utilize 25 per cent of the development budget in each quarter so as to ensure maximum utilization of public sector development programme (PSDP) every year.
The government has already empowered the federal secretaries/principal accounting officers to utilize up to 50 per cent and 45 per cent of the social sector and other development allocations without prior approval of the ministry of finance.
In 11 months of the last fiscal year, the total utilization had amounted to about 54 per cent of the total allocation but remaining 46 per cent funds were utilized in the month of June 2004.
"Allah does not change the state of people unless they change what is within themselves" Quran 1311
Edited by - pracs on Sep 08 2004 112259 AM
