Found at: http://www.anguillaguide.com/article/articleprint/5227/-1/140/
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MONITORING, EVALUATION WORKSHOP FOR PUBLIC SERVICE Changing The System Of Budgeting In Anguilla
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Heads of Departments and Senior Public Servants in Anguilla began a Monitoring and Evaluation Workshop on Monday this week as part of a Strategic Planning Programme in the Overseas Countries and Territories.
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The Public Service participants in the workshop
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The workshop Consultant, Mrs.Alexa Khan of Trinidad and Tobago, and the participants were welcomed at the opening ceremony at Paradise Cove Resort by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Carl Harrigan.
“It has become quite clear to all of us who have some responsibility for budgeting within the Government of Anguilla that we cannot continue with our current method of budgeting and management of resources available for the people of Anguilla,” Mr. Harrigan told the gathering. “The road has been long and we have been assisted in the past by the United Kingdom Government… and many of our local and regional institutions.
“Now with the involvement of the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD) and with funding from the European Union, this programme, on budget reform, has gained momentum and we are all now eagerly awaiting the product of this concerted effort in the form of a new budgeting system for 2008…This workshop will no doubt introduce new concepts but will also enable the participants to build on the work done by all thus far in the quest for programme budgeting and budget reform.”
Mr. Harrigan said that as the Anguilla Government began a process of changing the financial reporting system, from the familiar one to one that meets international standards, the process of budgeting must also change. “As this unfolds, those who approved the funding will ask what is being achieved from the sums voted,” he went on. “These questions are already being asked by members of the House of Assembly. As the Government embarks on the quest to have a functioning Accounts Committee, this will even take on more significance.”
He hoped that at the end of the week the desired results of the workshop would not only be seen, but the participants would be in a better position to complete the 2008 budget in the desired format and in conformity with management for development results.
Shona Proctor said that in 2004 the Anguilla Government took a decision to convert the National Budget from the ‘Line Item’ approach to the Programme Budgeting approach and to institutionalise the latter in the Anguilla Public Service. She explained that the new approach required the adoption of a multi-year planning perspective and focuses attention on the output and outcomes of public expenditure rather than simple outputs. Since then some two workshops were held with the hope that all ministries and departments would review, develop or revise business plans for the 2008 budget cycle. She noted that at this stage the emphasis would be placed on the monitoring and evaluation of those business plans.
Ms Proctor stated that the objectives of the workshop were to develop an understanding of the monitoring and evaluation concepts of the business plans; promote knowledge sharing and collaboration among officials to enable the development of an effective monitoring and evaluation framework for the Anguilla Public Service; to increase or upgrade the current level of monitoring and evaluation knowledge and skills.
To this end, the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD), the primary sponsor of the workshop, contracted the service of Alexa Khan, Coordinator, Evaluation and Reporting in the Trinidad Ministry of Planning and Development, to conduct the workshop.
Mrs. Khan said it was no easy task to convert from the original way of budgeting to performance-based budgeting. She explained that among the questions to be addressed were whether citizens were receiving value for money being spent on goods and services; whether the poor and needy were really benefiting from welfare; and whether the unemployed were able to generate income-earning opportunities from the skills training programmes held annually.
She added that in order to effect the change and to achieve positive results took money, time and effort.
Following the first full day of work on Monday, it was arranged for the remaining four days to focus on Ministries and their Departments to reinforce the monitoring and evaluation concepts and deal with specific business plans.
Over the four-day period, the workshop at other locations for personnel from the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and its departments, the Ministry of Infrastructure and its departments; and the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Governor’s Office and associated departments including Public Administration, House of Assembly, Disaster Management, Police, Judiciary and the Attorney General’s Chambers.
The Public Service participants in the workshop
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