Ministries’ 2018 Budget proposals must have KPIs

As Budget 2018 will be prepared on a performance basis, all the proposals of line ministries, provincial ministries and heads of departments should clearly indicate the details of the output of such projects accompanied with Key Performance Indicators (KPI), revealed the Secretary to the Treasury and Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media Dr. R.H.S. Samaratunga.

Detailing the process of the preparation of next year’s performance budget, the Minister of Finance and Mass Media has said that priority will be given to ongoing and foreign-funded projects where KPI-based measurable outcomes were identified for each projects.

Further, the Minister said that capital expenditure projects that have been earmarked for implementation by the National Planning Department for each ministry will also be given priority provided the plans of such projects carry KPIs.

The medium-term macro-fiscal framework for 2018-2020 approved by the Cabinet of Ministers for the performance-based budget preparation from 2018 includes the rationalisation of recurrent expenditure and prioritisation of capital expenditure while enhancing Government revenue mobilisation and public investment and reducing the budget deficit and outstanding Government debt.

Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera said that the Government expects that such improvements in the performance of the public finance management will augur well for the realisation of medium-term economic growth of around 6-7%.

In 2018, major macroeconomic assumptions include real GDP growth of 6%, inflation to stabilise at 5% and the overall budget deficit to be contained at 4.3% of GDP.

Formulation of the performance-based budget from 2018 has been built on the experience of implementing the zero-based budgeting approach adopted in the preceding years. Therefore, identifying the scope of the projects, defining the intended measurable outcomes and assessing the socioeconomic impact on the projects comprise the major elements of the performance-based budget preparations approach.

These days the feasibility assessments of the projects forwarded by various ministries are being conducted at the Finance Ministry with the participation of the secretaries of the respective ministries and Dr. Samaratunga requested all line ministry secretaries, provincial secretaries, heads of departments and heads of state-own enterprises to submit their proposals without delay.

Minister Samaraweera is expected to submit the 2018 Budget in Parliament in November 2018.