The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Targets ‘at risk’ of not being achieved were the focus of discussions during the mid year review of the annual performance agreements (APA) for 2016-17 signed between the 10 government ministries and seven autonomous agencies and the prime minister.
While targets on the ‘Achieved and On track’ checklist were acknowledged those deemed ‘At Risk’ was presented by the ministries and agencies to seek timely interventions and directives from the government.
One issues deliberated by all agencies was on the lack of funding and space for establishing childcare crèches, considered as one of the mandatory indicators.
The review meeting, held earlier this week in the capital and chaired by the prime minister, directed the agencies to work on the viability of pooling resources to establish one common crèche instead of having one for every nearby locality.
For instance, the offices in and around the Trashichhodzong were directed to carry out an assessment and if need be, establish a crèche to cater to all in the Dzong area.
The Dzongkha Development Commission, Tourism Council of Bhutan and Ministry of Health did not have any issues to report that required government’s intervention.
The National Technical Committee (NTC) is responsible for review of the proposed APA targets, review linkage of Annual Budget Proposals and evaluate the Annual Performance Scores.
The NT comprise officials from the Royal Civil Service Commission, Department of National Budget (Ministry of Finance), Gross National Happiness Commission, National Statistics Bureau and Government Performance Management Division (GPMD).
Some of the observations by GPMD on the self-assessed scores of the ministries and agencies from the Mid Year Review were vague proposals from agencies with regard to Problem Solving Requests (PSRs).
The PSRs of some of the agencies were seen as weak and not thoroughly deliberated within the agency to garner solution to the Success Indicators that are ‘At Risk’.
It was also observed that there is minimum coordination within their agencies in terms of ownership and timely review of APA although it is deemed that agencies should take ownership and carry out periodic review of their agreement.
10 ministries, 7 autonomous agencies and 20 Dzongkhags have signed the Annual Performance Agreement with Lyonchhen Tshering Tobgay in July 2016.
The Prime Minister Lyonchhen Tshering Tobgay said that he was very happy with the overall performance during the mid-year review of the APA for ministries and autonomous agencies. He thanked the civil servants for working hard, delivering results and making the government performance management system work.
