Delhi government to bring ‘outcome-oriented’ budget for 2017-18

New Delhi, March 1 (IANS) The Delhi Budget 2017-18 will be outcome-oriented and “constitute a contract between the government and the people of the national capital”, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Siodia said on Wednesday.

In order to ensure that this year’s budget is “outcome-oriented”, a comprehensive outcome budgeting exercise has been carried out by all departments of the Delhi government.

Under the exercise all major programmes and schemes have been mapped against outcomes i.e. how will the people of Delhi benefit from that spending, an official statement said.

Subsequently, indicators have been defined for each output and outcome and targets for 2017-18 have been set.

Sisodia, who chaired a review meeting with all Heads of Departments in this connection, said a traditional budget emphasises only financial outlays and spending on various activities, but stops short of promising outcomes that citizens eventually care about.

“This outcome budget will constitute a contract between the government and the people of Delhi,” Sisodia, who also holds the finance portfolio, said.

Under the outcome budgeting exercise, each budgetary allocation will be accompanied by a comprehensive set of quantifiable indicators, some measuring outputs and some measuring outcomes.

For example, under the Aam Aadmi Mohalla Clinics scheme, the total financial outlay for 2017-18 will be accompanied by output indicators measuring total number of new Mohalla Clinics that will be launched, number of medical and para-medical staff to be deployed, and number of free medicines and tests that will be made available, the statement said.

The outcome indicators will track actual number of patients availing these services, as well as satisfaction score on a scale of 1 to 5, it added.