The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is mulling over establishing a result-based monitoring by setting up certain priority sectors at each ministry.

In pursuit of transforming itself into a more pro-active agency, the PMO is working on guidelines to monitor the performance of the ministries based on certain results. There are 21 ministries, including the PMO. It is preparing a draft of monitoring mechanism.

“We will select certain priority areas for each ministry and set targets in each sector to monitor them on daily basis,” said PMO Secretary Kedar Bahadur Adhikari. “People will be made more accountable to the performance in their respective sector.”

Although the PMO has been monitoring the works of the ministries as a whole, officials said it is for the first time they are seeking to make it resulted based by setting certian targets.

Although the ministries have been involved in several areas under their jurisdiction, the PMO plans to focus on a few priority areas in order to make the monitoring more effective.

“The priority areas and the targets will be set after consultations with the ministries concerned,” said Adhikari. It also plans to make the ministry’s leadership accountable for the performance. The PMO official, however, said they are yet to determine whether to make the political leadership or the administrative leadership accountable for the performance.

Besides the daily monitoring, the PMO will be working to solve the problems facing the ministries while carrying out their tasks on the fast-track basis. “We are planning to set up a unit called ‘Problem Resolving Centre’ to address any problems facing the ministry,” said Adhikari.

The centre will work to change the regulations quickly and address any other administrative and inter-ministerial issues, according to Adhikar. He also dropped a hint that the centre might also have a team of experts from outside the government.

The PMO is currently holding internal discussions and has not yet set any deadline as to when the new monitoring mechanism would come into force. Once the policy is introduced, an institutional mechanism will be set up, Adhikari said. “We hope to start a planned monitoring mechanism to a certain degree beginning the current fiscal year. But it will be fully functional from the next fiscal.”