DHAKA, July 13, 2019 (BSS) – Ministries as well as concerned divisions will sign separate Annual Performance Agreements (APA) with the cabinet division today to ensure more transparency and accountability in the government’s overall activities.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to witness the APA signing ceremony for 2019-20 financial year to be held at the Shapla Hall of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), acting secretary (coordination and reforms) of the cabinet division Sheikh Mujibur Rahman told newsmen.
He said the ministries and divisions are going to sign the fifth consecutive APA deals for infusing dynamism into implementation of various projects and development programmes of the government.
“The APA means one year working plan to be completed by each ministry or division,” said Mujibur Rahman.
He said the cabinet secretary on behalf of the prime minister and secretaries or senior secretaries on behalf of the ministers concerned would sign the APA.
The acting secretary, however, said secretaries or senior secretaries would hand over the APA to the premier after signing the agreements.
Rahman said the new APA is prepared considering the Vision 2021, projects committed by the Prime Minister, Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), Seventh Fifth Year Plan and projects under Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative.
He said the achievement of the ministries and divisions according to the agreement will be evaluated after the end of the 2019-20 financial year.
The government has introduced the method of APA in 2014-2015 fiscal year for the public sector to ensure institutional transparency, accountability, proper utilization of resources and, above all, enhancing the institutional efficiency.
The main purposes of introducing the APA are- moving the focus of the ministry from process-orientation to result-orientation, and providing an objective and fair basis to evaluate overall performance of the ministries and divisions at the end of the year.