The government has worked out a public expenditure management manual (PEMM), detailing the requisite conditions for taking up a project and implementing it. The finance minister is expected to launch the manual soon.

The PEMM has outlined and set timeline to the entire procedures starting from penning the national budget to its implementation to bring in discipline in the government expenditure.

It demands a logical framework analysis (LFA) of a project to help define the objectives and expected results of a project, identify stakeholders and potential beneficiaries as well as select performance indicators.

The performance indicators, which will be used to monitor the progress of a project, must provide a clearly defined unit of measurement along with a target detailing the quantity, quality and timing of expected results.

The manual presents an example delineating each stage of how a project should be approved, implemented and evaluated.

The PEMM has prepared a budget calendar with specific dates within which different stages of formulating a budget will have to be completed. According to the manual, the budget will have to be revised during the second half of the financial year on the basis of performance and requirement.

The manual has set April as the deadline for revising the current ADP and prepare the next ADP.

Providing a guideline for the ministries on how they will prepare their budgets, the manual suggests not to allow the ministries to spend more than their budgetary allocations.

The PEMM has also come up with detailed guidelines about medium term budget framework, procedure of ADP formulation, release of ADP and non-ADP fund etc.

A finance ministry source said the government as part of reforming the formulation of the national budget allowed four ministries to prepare their respective budgets in the last fiscal year. Some more ministries will also formulate their budgets this year while all ministries will have to prepare their budgets from the next year.

Noting that besides planned corruption, mismanagement also results in wastage of huge public money while implementing the budget, the manual is expected to root out these perennial problems by checking and counter-checking the different stages of project approval and implementation process.

M Hafizuddin Khan, former chairman of the PERC that had earlier suggested setting up a framework, like the PEMM, told The Daily Star that improvement can be achieved if the manual is followed.