Performance account is important

In a move attesting to the seriousness of the government to account for its performance, the prime minister on Monday submitted to His Majesty King Abdullah a report of achievements over the year on several fronts.

The sections of the report covered eight fields: economic, administrative, the fight against corruption, judiciary, education and human resources, employment and labour, protection and social development, and services. 

Containing indicators and benchmarks on the basis of which the government performance could be assessed, the report is important, especially when there has been a feeling that the King’s directives and policies had not been fully implemented.

Cabinet reshuffles cannot be all that needs to be done to fix things in the country. Nor are there policies on paper and pledges that fail to materialise.

What really counts is not what the government plans to do or what is in the pipeline, but what is actually done and has a positive impact.

The government said it essentially wanted to reduce spending, increase growth rates and revenues through addressing taxation by amending tax tariffs and exemptions, with a special focus on removing subsidies for non-basic commodities of no interest to poor and middle-income households. 

Reading the report, one can see that measures were indeed taken towards reaching these goals, through cancelling tax hikes, increasing minimum wage, bringing down prices of 81 per cent of commodities, continuing the construction of industrial estates in the Jerash, Salt, Madaba and Tafileh governorates, taking initiatives to stimulate the business environment and securing government funding for various projects, taking additional measures to reduce spending, determining the needs in limiting the burden of hosting refugees, increasing the use of renewable energy sources and starting the implementation of a project to generate electricity from oil shale.

These appear to be concrete measures whose effect will be eventually felt. As long as efforts can be quantified and gauged, one can talk about transparency and seriousness in performance.

The report could serve as a model for various other ministries that should start submitting their own performance accounts to the prime minister on regular basis — twice a year or even more often would give a better idea of where things are going, allowing for corrective steps if needed — so that he or she can stay informed of what the team of ministers accomplishes during a certain period of time. 

Of course, all such reports would have to be correct and verifiable, and contain reliable data based on which progress, or otherwise, can be measured in various fields.

Follow up procedures also need to be incorporated, as should an analysis of reasons for not achieving set targets, if the case arises.

Only when there is accountability is there more certitude that things get done. A good start.