DailyPost 115
Program Budgeting can show the way.
Our tryst with expenditure budgeting is too well known to be elaborated one more time. Needless to say, it needs a paradigm shift sooner than later, to bring the budgeting mechanism back on rails in tune with the spelt out goals and capability to deliver. This is program budgeting, which is being treated as the golden rule of budgeting. I developed a fancy for it while working with the United Nations.
The obsession is with utilization and financial Year like the Damocles sword. It’s always a race against time, in an exercise in which contract management would have really been useful, but has not seen the light of the day. Contract management could cut down hugely on the meetings and inject and welcome dose of ease in the system. Program budgeting would work on programm
The obsession is with utilization and end of financial year hangs like the Damocles sword. It’s always a race against time, in an exercise in which contract management would have really been useful, but has not seen the light of the day in India. Contract management could cut down hugely on the meetings and can inject the welcome dose of ease in the system. Program budgeting would work on program parameters, but the success of it also depends on success of contract management.
At the inception,the project / program will have the deliverables in place based on the discussion between the funding agency and the user agency. Deliverables would decide the success of the project. If deliverables are not achieved, it does not add up to expenditure.
Program budgeting as I have experienced while working with UN starts with the preparation and thus deliverables based on timelines gets incorporated. This itself is the game changer. Time and cost overruns have played havoc with the system as we are aware of. Program budgeting thus can be the game changer.
PROGRAM BUDGETING CAN MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE TO OUR LIVES
Sanjay Sahay