Govt asks 13 departments to prepare Outcome Budgets

The state finance department has urged 13 administrative departments to prepare Outcome Budgets for 2013-14 broadly in line with the recent guidelines issued by the Government of India.

The Outcome Budgets are to be prepared within seven days from the date of introduction of the State Budget in the assembly scheduled for February 19.

"The real value of Outcome Budget lies in its utilities as a policy tool to establish effective linkage with allocation and disbursement of public fund on the basis of measurable performance. Therefore, they should link release of funds with progress in achieving monitorable physical targets against commitment made in the Outcome Budget. Similarly, the utilization certificates should also bring out the output based physical performance”, additional chief secretary J K Mohapatra said in a letter to secretaries of these 13 departments.

The departments instructed to prepare Outcome Budgets include forest & environment, rural development, agriculture, water resources, housing & urban development, health & family welfare, panchayati raj, energy, fisheries & animal resources department, ST & SC development, school & mass education, women & child development and works.

With a view to ensure proper implementation of schemes and programmes in terms of better service delivery, decision making and efficacy in programme implementation through deliverable outputs, the state government had come out with a performance measurement tool called Outcome Budget in 2010-11.

The Outcome Budget consists of the functions, organizational set up, list of major programmes and schemes implemented by the concerned departments as well as the mandate, goals and policy framework of these departments.

In addition to this, the Outcome Budget also indicates the details of financial outlays, projected physical outputs and projected outcomes for 2010-11 under Plan and Non-Plan provisions.

The Outcome Budget, as a performance tool, also details the reforms measures and policy initiatives taken by the departments during the course of the year, presents budget estimates of the previous year as well as the current financial year and highlights the outlay provided for the schemes benefiting the ST& SC groups along with the corresponding physical flows.