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South Africa’s MTEF Effective expenditure for development

Understand South Africa’s MTEF and its benefits for effective expenditure, including budget format reforms and measuring service delivery. Learn about key problems, the 2002 Budget, and the importance of performance measurement. Discover the cycle of reporting and why measuring performance is crucial for improving societal welfare.

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South Africa’s MTEF Effective expenditure for development

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  1. South Africa’s MTEF Effective expenditure for development Malawi Poverty Monitoring System Workshop 24-26 July 2002

  2. What is the MTEF? • MTEF sets out 3-year rolling spending and revenue plans for national and provincial government • 2002 Budget is the 5th MTEF budget tabled in Parliament

  3. Advantages of a MTEF • Greater certainty for depts to plan and budget for services in line with policy priorities • Affordable spending in the medium term • Strengthened political decision-making and accountability • Greater transparency of budget and service delivery information for the public • Improved management of public finances

  4. Key budget format reforms... • Extension of medium term information in the • 7-yr trend information enables comparative analysis • Service delivery information - specifying outputs and output measures and indicators • Emphasises ‘value for money’ • Move towards quantity, quality, timelines and cost measures and indicators in subsequent Budgets • Tracking and making progress in service delivery is key message

  5. Budgeting for service delivery • Helps departments plan, budget and manage programmes better • Improves accountability and control • Informs policy- and decision making • Provides information to the public about what goods and services government ‘buys’

  6. 2001 Budget…. • First step: Depts asked to develop output or quantity indicators • For certain policy depts, quality and timeliness indicators proved more appropriate • Considerable difficulties experience in defining meaningful and manageable indicators • Learning by doing • NB to ensure policy and budget teams work together

  7. Key problems identified • Benefits of measuring performance not fully understood • Limited collaboration between financial and operational staff • Inconsistent interpretation of terminology • Departments made use measures that are readily available

  8. 2002 Budget... • Key message: consolidate and improve service delivery indicators • Depts to develop service delivery targets or milestones for each measure or indicator that has been identified • Quality, timeliness, and cost measures & indicators the focus in future years • Change of mindset towards performance monitoring is required • Is an iterative process that takes time

  9. Measuring service delivery... • Focus on: • Getting the terminology right • clarifies how service delivery and performance measurement tools are used • Assisting departments to • specify appropriate measurable objectives and outputs, • develop robust output measures and indicators and • set realistic targets

  10. Getting the terminology right • Outcomes • The end result that Government wants to achieve and refers particularly to the general state of wellbeing in the community. ‘safe and secure environment, healthy citizens, etc’ • Indicators • Assess the impact of programme outputs on the desired outcomes that Government wants to achieve. ‘rate of repeat offenders being jailed’

  11. Specifying outputs • Outputs • Answers the question ‘ what it is we deliver?’ • Output is a final good or service that is delivered to external clients • Important factors that apply when describing outputs, are: • External focus (avoid activities and management outputs) • Fall within the control and accountability of department • Comprehensive

  12. Service delivery measures & indicators should be... • Simple, clearly expressed and specific • Reliable • Easily measurable • Manageable • Ensure accountability

  13. Why measure performance? • Some of the more common reasons are: • Enhances the quality of services • Contributes to better budgeting • Assists in the application of management accountability • A more important reason has emerged: • Ascertain the extent to which programme outputs are improving the social and economic wellbeing of a community.

  14. Cycle of reporting • Requirement of ‘forward-looking’ strategic plans for 2002-2004 • Service delivery outputs, measures and targets • Budget format draws summary of service delivery information presented in strategic plan • ‘Past reviewing’ Annual report reviews service delivery progress and achievements against targets set out in strategic plan

  15. Budgeting for service delivery • Tracking output measures and indicators in terms of service delivery targets informs departmental managers, policy and decision-makers and the public about the progress that Government makes towards meeting its objectives

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