Evaluation office to study PDS

Will study the system, figure out innovative ways to distribute food subsidy

As the government gets ready to implement the ambitious National Food Security Ordinance, India’s first-ever independent evaluation office has started evaluating the targeted public distribution system to find innovative ways to distribute the food subsidy.

“We have to find out ways through which the cost incurred in handling and distribution of foodgrains could be brought down and also whether there could be any innovative way to distribute the food subsidy which could  include cash,” the Director General of the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO), Ajay Chhibber, told reporters.

Chhibber, who took charge of the office last week, said the IEO would help in improving the effectiveness of government policies and programmes by assessing their impact and outcomes.

 

He said the IEO will not only undertake evaluation of central schemes, but can evaluate projects and programmes under PPP mode as well. The first report of the IEO is expected in the next one-year.

 

“It will have the freedom to conduct independent evaluation of any programme which has access to public funding or implicit or explicit guarantees from the government,” Chhibber said. 

 

The IEO will make all the findings public and will submit the same to the Parliament and the Prime Ministers’ Office. 

 

“We can undertake an evaluation based on request made from any central government office, general public or civil society,” Chhibber said. The IEO will have a 30 member staff. 

 

“The actual groundwork of conducting evaluation studies will be outsourced to an agency which will be selected through a transparent process, while the IEO will lay down the parameters under which such assessments will be conducted,” Chhibber said. 

 

He said the office will also evaluate the best international practices and suggest measures to improve India’s evaluation process. 

 

Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who was also present said that IEO will be difference from the existing Project Evaluation Office of the Planning Commission both in scope and function.

 

PEO is an internal activity of the Planning Commission and is headed by a senior official. "We have seen that many times PEOs views were not adhered, but the IEO will have the rank and designation of a member Planning Commission, so he will have more say,” Ahluwalia said. 

 

He said the IEO will look at both financial performance and outcome performance of the programmes and schemes. The suggestions of the IEO will not be mandatory on the ministries and departments.

 

He said IEOs function will be different from the CAG. “The CAG’s primary work is to evaluate on financial parameters, but when it starts doing performance evaluation it gets problematic” Ahluwalia said.