Outcome Budget helped us in bringing reforms: Sisodia

Calling the Outcome Budget the Delhi government's "biggest achievement", Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday said the AAP government was able to bring reforms in the city because of this budget.

Speaking at the National Conference on Outcome Budgeting organised by Delhi's Dialogue and Development Commission, Sisodia said Delhi will become a narrator of the Outcome Budget.

An Outcome Budget, launched first by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in 2017-18, attempts to address the deficiencies of a usual Budget.

In the Outcome Budget, each department and agency, for its major programmes and schemes (revenue and capital components), mapped the tangible Outputs -- infrastructure or services provided, and Outcomes -- how will the people of Delhi benefit from that spending in the short-term.

The government had selected a comprehensive set of quantifiable Output and Outcome indicators.

Giving the reforms credit to the Outcome Budget, Sisodia said it has helped the government in improving the delivery of services to the people.

"People across the globe praise the Delhi government for various reforms it has brought in the field of education, health, power and other fields. In the past four years, if we were able to bring reforms, it was because of the Outcome Budget.

"These things do not directly relate to the public. But this is to clean the internal system. If you ask me the biggest achievement of this government, I will say the Outcome Budget. This was an out of the box idea," Sisodia said.

He said through the Outcome Budget, the government is not only asking the departments about the expenditure, but also its impact on people's lives.

"We are not a leadership which will be satisfied with reports or files, we want change and outcome. Merely laying the water pipeline in an area is not a solution. Solution is how many people were able to get the water through that pipeline. Outcome in true sense is when public is able to get the benefits," he said.

He said the task was not an easy one, "but whenever there will be talk of economy and governance reforms, this will be the baseline".

In the 2019-20 Outcome Budget, launched at the Conference, the Delhi government tracked the performance of 567 schemes through 2,200 Output and 1549 Outcome indicators.

--IANS

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