Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 24: In a major set-back to monitoring and evaluation of the performance of the departments, the State Government has stopped preparing Results Framework Document (RFD), which otherwise is widely accepted methodology for moving the focus of the departments from process-orientation to the result orientation.
The Performance Monitoring and Evaluation System (PMES) for the Government departments was introduced by the Union Government in the year 2009 and in the Chief Secretaries Conference held in February 2010, it was decided that the Performance Management Division of the Union Cabinet Secretariat will provide assistance to the States in implementing PMES/RFD at the State level.
Though many States immediately evinced keen interest in the RFD, Jammu and Kashmir remained slept over the new methodology of monitoring and evaluating the performance of the departments. However, in the year 2012, the then Chief Secretary, Madhav Lal decided to implement RFD in Jammu and Kashmir and Union Cabinet Secretariat, on the request of J&K’s Chief Secretary, carried out a detailed exercise in consultation with the Planning and Development Department of J&K Government in order to properly guide the officers of the State in having RFD of their respective departments for assessing their performance in objective way.
Based on the trial conducted during the last quarter of 2012-2013, almost all the departments prepared Results Framework Document for the financial year 2013-14. “Though it is said that RFD for 2013-14 was implemented but whether evaluation was conducted and what was its outcome vis-à-vis performance of department was never made public”, official sources informed EXCELSIOR.
Similarly, during 2014-15, the exercise for having Results Framework Document was initiated with some vigor but the same vanished within few months because of lack of interest not only from the officers of the concerned departments but also from the top of the bureaucracy, they said.
“Nobody knows what was the fate of RFD for 2014-15 as there was not even whispering from the Government departments on this exercise”, sources further said, adding “though Committee of Secretaries met a number of times during 2014-15 financial year, there was no discussion on Results Framework Document”.
Even during the current financial year (2015-16), nobody from the top brass of the bureaucracy has uttered single word on monitoring and evaluating the performance of the departments by adopting widely accepted mechanism of Results Framework Document, sources disclosed.
Stating that Government has virtually put full-stop on the mechanism devised by the Union Cabinet Secretariat for judging the performance of departments and their officers, sources said, “in this way the objective of moving the focus of the departments from process-orientation to result orientation has suffered big setback in Jammu and Kashmir”.
“It is irony that there is more than required focus on the transfer of officers and officials as compared to adopting the mechanism, which helps in evaluating the overall performance of the departments at the end of the year that too on the fair basis”, sources regretted, adding “this is also testimony of the fact that nobody in the Government wants to improve the system for the betterment of the State and people”.
It is worthwhile to mention here that RFD provides a summary of the most important results that a department expects to achieve during the financial year. RFD is essentially a record of understanding between a Minister representing the people’s mandate, and the Secretary of a Department responsible for implementing this mandate.
This document contains not only the agreed objectives, policies, programs and projects but also success indicators and targets to measure progress in implementing them. Through RFD three basic questions like what are the department’s main objectives for the year? What actions are proposed by the department to achieve these objectives? and how would someone know at the end of the year the degree of progress made implementing these actions, are answered.
“But the J&K has made it clear that it doesn’t want the departments’ to be result oriented”, sources regretted.
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