A Users' Guide to Measuring Local Governance

Table 32:
PBGS in Uganda, Tanzania and Nepal – Examples of Minimum Conditions (MCs) and
Performance Criteria (PCs)
1 MINIMUM CONDITIONS 2 PERFORMANCE CRITERIA
Uganda
1 Three year rolling development plan
2 Functional technical planning committee
3 Draft final accounts on time
4 Functional internal audit
5 No nominal decrease in own source revenues
6 Co-funding and special accounts
Tanzania
1 Functioning (political?) council
2 Development plan approved by council on time
3 Position of the council director, treasurer and internal auditor filled
4 Final accounts submitted for audit on time
5 No adverse audit report
6 No financial irregularities
7 Internal audit in place
8 Legally constituted tender board
Nepal
1 Approved plan and budget
2 Accounts completed and submitted for audit
3 No major irregularities in previous accounts, functioning of
committees,
4 Information centre established
Uganda
1 Evidence of clear strategies for exploiting the opportunities and
resources to address the LG challenges and core problems (with
emphasis on addressing poverty directly or indirectly and
empowering the poor) including priority projects and key
investments, noting the contribution from each sector
2 Evidence of a clear analysis of LG poverty and livelihood issues
including poverty trends for past five years (cause-effect
relationships), livelihood analysis for the different poverty
categories/vulnerable groups (such as children, people living
with HIV/AIDS, the elderly, people with disabilities, displaced
persons, the urban poor) and geographical poverty pockets.
3 District Development Plan contains sound gender analysis
including disaggregated data, gender impact analysis,.
4 …
Tanzania
1 Evidence that queries raised in the external audit report have
been acted upon.
2 Evidence that in the planning process there is:
• Adherence to participatory planning procedures
• Integration of gender, environmental issues and HIV/AIDS.
…
3 Evidence of discussions and actions taken on financial and
physical progress reports
Nepal
1 Representatives from NGOs, civil society and organization
related with women and children and disabled groups are
invited in the sectoral meeting of plan formulation committee
meeting
2 Social Audit conducted within four months after the end of
financial year
3 District Development Committee (DDC) officials code of conduct
is prepared and made public
4 DDC provides information to the public about project selection
criteria, and approved annual plan and budget
Methodology
The rationale underlying the PBGS rests on the idea that
funds are only disbursed if the beneficiary local government
performs well according to pre-established criteria. These
criteria are called Minimum Conditions (MCs). MCs are the
minimum safeguards for proper utilisation of public
resources, identifying the basic absorption capacity and
maintaining financial discipline. In addition, Performance
Measures (PMs) are designed to create an incentive for local
governments to improve their performance, especially with
regards to enhancing transparency and accountability to
citizens, and meeting the needs of marginalized and
disadvantaged communities. The annual grant of local
government usually increases or decreases subject to the
scores achieved in PMs.
Table 32 shows some examples of indicators for MCs and
some areas of PMs, for five selected country applications.
These indicators largely derive from the principles of
transparency, (upward and downward) accountability,
participation, integrity, effectiveness and equity.
A Users’ Guide to Measuring Local Governance 125