First Independent Review Mission for Backward Regions Grant Fund State Report
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- Quality of the development plans
- 3.4 Conclusions and Recommendations
3.2 IssuesHow untied? - BRGF guidelines provided a suggestive set of activities for undertaking using the BRGF fund8. These guidelines were considered sacrosanct by GoMP and a set of priorities were spelt out to the districts in the form of telephone connectivity for all GPs (Rs 6000 per annum) and a IAY house in each GP per year (Rs 35,000). If this continued in the following year between 12-15 percent of the total annual funds available will be tied. Under the 2007-08 schemes 75 percent was tied down to infrastructure gap-filling in flagship schemes like AWCs, Health sub-centres, Panchayat Ghar, Community Centers, Veterinary Clinics and Additional classrooms in schools. Again, if the similar wish list continues ultimately what came down to the district as untied fund is 12-15 percent of the total. Link between activity and its relevance- In one of the activities visited- additional rooms in Borikala Higher Secondary school in Barghat Janpad- it was found that instead of additional classrooms one library and a laboratory had been constructed. Thus this school with an enrolment of 860 students had only 3 classrooms but 3 other rooms (2 laboratories and 1 library). 1 laboratory had already been constructed here using funds from Pathya Pustak Nigam. Ownership of the district – Discussion with the officials in the two districts visited revealed that there was feeling that the programme had become somewhat centralised due to state setting priorities. They felt that since the requirements of each district was different, setting of priorities, if at all necessary, should have at best been left with the district. Compulsion of tying of fund usage to priorities- Given the scale of the programme (50 percent of the districts of MP are covered) and the fact that an untied fund is being provided, it becomes operationally difficult from programme management’s perspective to disburse funds without a rider. The fiduciary risk especially in the scenario of limited transparency and monitoring systems compel programme managers to provide an over-arching framework for regulating the spending. The programme guidelines have also been silent on how to address the fiduciary risk involved with using and disbursing untied funds. The underlying assumption in the guidelines is perhaps that the greater decentralization and direct involvement of the Gram Sabhas will enhance transparency and upwards accountability and together with systems of community monitoring and social audits will help manage this risk. Convergence and coordination There is a gradual improvement in the vertical coordination of plans catalyzed by the BRGF. The BRGF has definitely promoted awareness on participatory planning, brought people together and raised the issues of integrated planning and local priorities. The convergence with some of the line departments for filling gaps under their department like the Women and Child Welfare and Health schemes are appreciative. However, full convergence is necessary with all line departments active in the districts so that overlapping investments and increased fiduciary risks as some projects may be accounted for twice. Facilitators (TSIs) were used the first year, but have not been continued. The quality was an issue, and the support ceased. However, there is a strong need to re-establish some form for “hands-on” in the field support, through consultancy inputs, inputs from facilitators etc. Quality of the development plansThe inclusion of the sector plans in the PRIs plans is a great challenge and has not been possible. There is still a long way to go to ensure that the sector plans and the PRIs plans are converged and working together with sufficient synergies. Plans, perspective and annual, are there, but the quality is not high, particularly on: Inclusion of other external initiatives, NGOs, CBOs etc. reflected Links between five year and annual plans Links between the annual plan and budgets Coverage of poverty issue Environmental and socio-economic impact Gender mainstreaming No real poverty analysis or targeting of SC/ST groups has been done. It is just assumed that they are benefiting with the IAY scheme included, in a big way, under the Development Grant. A four day workshop on the use of Plan Plus was organized by the Academy of Administration, Bhopal in August 2008. It was followed by a six-day State Level Workshop cum Refresher Training Programme in June 2009. A total of 66 participants were trained in 3 batches with duration of two days for each batch. 22 Districts in 2007-08 have uploaded their district plans. However, the plans for 2008-08 are yet to be uploaded by all BRGF districts. 3.4 Conclusions and RecommendationsConclusions The planning process is severely delayed and there are too many approval steps and bottlenecks. The time for the PRIs is too short to enable that service gaps can be identified and to ensure that the sectors are insufficient involved in the horizontal coordination. The 2009-10 district plans are still awaiting (July 2009) approval of the HPC. Recommendations: Develop a clear planning calendar at each tier of governance, which should be adhered with; Advance the start of the planning process to minimum October (ideally July) and complete most of the planning in January with the aim to have a completed plan prior to the start of the FY; Announcement of planning figures for each tier of government; Reduce the number of approval steps, through clarifying and changing the roles of the DPC to play a technical and coordinative role; Avoid the delaying step of approval of all plans at the High Powered Committee level. The HPC should monitor, evaluate etc, and not do a formal approval of a plan which has already been consolidated by the District Planning Committee set up under the Constitutional provision. In MP District Plans are ready awaiting HPC approval for few months now; MoPR, in addition to its role for appraisal of plans, place a stronger focus on policy development, guidance and monitoring, development of new tools such as targeting of backwardness, assessment tools etc., and evaluation; Improve the support to establishment of a district planning cell, with real planning officers; The guidelines of the BRGF needs to be clarified (page 50) with a clear indication of the importance of the approval by the respective Panchayat Assemblies; Ensure that the Line Departments inform the PRIs in due time about their investments and initiatives to enable the BRGF investments to perform its roles as gap filling and provide stronger incentives to do this, e.g. from stronger pressure from the center. Over time, Departments should also contribute with funding to address cross-sectoral issues. 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