PESHAWAR, March 5: NWFP Health Minister Inayatullah Khan has underlined the need for replacing strict financial rules for making budgetary allocations for various sectors under a performance-based evaluation system with a view to obtaining maximum benefits from the available resources.

Speaking at the inaugural session of a two-day workshop ‘Performance-Based Budgeting’ on Monday, he said time had come that “we get rid of absolute budgetary rules.”

Lauding the ‘innovative’ idea of the performance-based budgeting, he said: “We avoid innovations due to which we couldn’t move forward.”

About the traditional budgeting system, he said it was an input-driven system in which outputs were totally ignored.

“Performance-based budgeting is a novel idea because outputs are properly focused in it. Therefore, its careful implementation on pilot basis is a must,” he advised.

He underlined the need for developing a compatible model of performance-based budgeting in pilot areas before replicating it to other areas and sectors. The health minister, while stressing the need for reforms for a better change, advised the implementers of the performance-based budget to move forward slowly and steadily to avoid failure. Earlier, Bushra Rahim and Saifur Rehman Usmani highlighted the salient features of the performance-based budgeting system.

They discussed the initiatives aimed at replacing the conventional input-driven form of budgeting with output-oriented and performance-based budgeting by linking resources with results.

Under the new system, they said, vision, goals, objectives, performance targets and performance indicators would be set for every service delivery unit. They informed that the new system had a built-in mechanism for organisational performance, evaluation and accountability.

The participants were informed that the performance-based budgeting system was introduced in two pilot districts – Peshawar and Kohat – during the financial year 2005-06 in Pilot Units of Schools & Literacy, Health, Agriculture and Population Welfare Departments which had shown encouraging results.

The experts further informed that its scope had been extended to Abbottabad and Bannu districts during the ongoing financial year.