An oversight from the Gross National Happiness Commission has caused one of its success indicators to be at risk.
During the mid year review on February 26, the GNHC secretary Thinley Namgyel requested that the success indicator to complete the year-end reviews of Annual Performance Agreement (APA) for fiscal year 2017/2018 for selected autonomous agencies be dropped.
The secretary instead proposed that this activity be broken down into three new SIs – number of concept notes of Flagship Programme finalised, timeline by which National SDG Report and Voluntary National Report are finalised, and Preparation for LDC graduation.
The timeline was initially targeted to complete by August end this year.
Thinley Namgyel said the SI activity as well as the target reflected in APA is not relevant for this fiscal year.
“It can only be pursued in the next fiscal year as the review of annual performance target will take place only after the completion of FY 2017-2018.”
He said that of the total 20 SIs, four have been achieved while 13 are on track and three indicators are at risk.
For the second SI at risk, Thinley Namgyel requested to insert the words “draft” and “prepared” instead of finalised. GNHC proposed the revised time to state, “the draft annual performance target (APT) for FY 2018/2019 for autonomous agencies be prepared.”
“This is because the APT for autonomous agencies can be reviewed and finalised only after the FY 2018-19 budget has been approved,” he said. “GNHC would be in position to only review the draft APT for autonomous agencies by February end.”
The third indiactor at risk was to complete reviewing sectors/LGs budget for FY 2018/2019 by Febraury 2018. GNHC requested the Prime Minister to revise the target to March 2018.
The secretary suggested that the performance rating for March be excellent, very good if completed by April, good if completed by May, fair if completed by June, and poor if completed after June.
He said that as per the FY 2018-2019 Budget Call Notification issued by the finance ministry, the deadline given to agencies for submission of budget proposal is February 28 2018.
“This does not provide any time for GNHC to review the budget within February, which was the main target timeline and thus, can only be carried out in March as proposed.”
Of the four achieved SIs, the GNHC has successfully completed updation of resource mobilisation status for all budgetary agencies for the last four years.
The annual progress report capturing the 11th Plan implementation progress has been finalised and shared within GNHC.
“The mid-year review of APT for 14 autonomous agencies were also conducted on January 26 this year. The Review Committee reported that of the total 457 success indicators, 25 percent were achieved, 70 percent were on track and 4 percent at risk.”
The GNHC has also prepared the final draft of the 12th Plan for central agencies and local government as per the target, which was January this year. All drafts of 12th Plan document – Volume I, II and III are completed.
Volume I covers country background, current situation, GNH and planning framework and macroeconomic framework, which also captures the National Key Result Areas, Agency Key Result Areas, Local Government Key Result Areas, and broad sectoral and LG programs.
While Volume II consists of programme profiles of the ministries, Constitutional Bodies, autonomous and other Agencies, and Volume III contains programme profiles of 20 Dzongkhags and four Thromdes.
The commission had spent Nu 43.31 Million of the total Nu 109.10 Million budget released.
Although Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay agreed to revised the last two SIs at risk, he askedthe GNHC to discuss with the Governement Performance Managetment Division on the SI of timeline to complete year-end review of APA for fiscal year 2017/2018 for selected autonomous agencies.
“This is a lapse from the Commission and it was a major oversight target with a weightage of 5, which means this activity was most important,” the Prime Minister said. “The Flagship Programme, National SDG Report and Voluntary National Report, and LDC graduation are important and the Commission should discuss it once again with the GPMD.”
Prime Minister added that the budget release has been delayed, as it has still not decided if there would be an 11th National Assembly session and thus could not call the budget.
“Which is why 11 autonomous agencies have not been able to achieve APA’s indicators. So, it’s ok to propose the draft APT for FY 2018/2019 for autonomous agencies.”
Yangchen C Rinzin