ISU-Finance Deptt Supports Several Public Sector Reforms: ISU Report

Finance Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tuesday released the first progress report of its Internal Support Unit (ISU), established to resolve public sector reform challenges including problem solving, quantitative analysis, delivery and communication in different public sector departments

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Jun, 2022 ) :Finance Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Tuesday released the first progress report of its Internal Support Unit (ISU), established to resolve public sector reform challenges including problem solving, quantitative analysis, delivery and communication in different public sector departments.

The unit, established in October 2019, provides operational support to public sector departments, an official document released by the Finance Department revealed.

The improvement in key indicators in KP Finance department were introduced through institutional reforms, and rigorous monitoring and in-depth data analysis.

The year 2019-20 progressed as a year of record revenue growth of 65 percent with Rs. 17.2 billion collection for the provincial ex-chequer.

ISU also developed a new ADP release policy that was approved by the Cabinet, resulting in an increase in budget release from Rs. 24 billion in December 2019 to Rs. 72 billion in January 2020.

The identification of Auqaf properties and proposed business plans to increase annual revenue from Rs. 15.6 million to Rs. 231 million and identification of Rs. 200 billion share of KP in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).

ISU's key indicators had played its role in improvement of different sectors of KP Health Department such as increase in medicines budget for secondary and primary healthcare facilities from Rs. 2.5 billion to 4.5 billion for year 2021-22, increase in operational budget from Rs. 8.7 billion to Rs 13.2 billion and Rs 36 billion to Rs 42 billion increase in MTI's grans.

Increasing number of functional COVID Vaccination Centers over 1000 facilities. ISU supported in designing recruitment plans to enhance human resource capacity of the department.

Similarly key milestones achieved during fiscal year 2019-20, 20-21 and 21-22 in Finance Department included approval of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Revenue Authority (KPRA) incentive plan and institutionalized the first performance-based incentive programme in government departments.

It developed and launched a new Integrated Budget Call Circular that provides greater integration of the budget formulation process and enabled the departments to have greater flexibility to appropriate additional funding.

The unit also reinvigorated the accelerated implementation programme (AIP) by an in-depth review of schemes by department, identification of high impact projects and increased the pace of project design by supporting the preparation of 54 numbers of PC-1.

According to the report, in KP health department its achievements included "Seht Card Plus Program under which Rs 1 million health coverage was ensured to each of all 7.5 million households in KP, primary care transformation improving service delivery to over 1.2 million patients a year in 100 revamped facilities through improvements in inputs.

Revamped secondary care facilities impacting over 2.5 million patients visit a year due to improvements in staff presence, medicine and equipment availability and improved infrastructure, the document revealed.

Outsourcing initiatives increase access to quality medical services in remote areas helping 400,000 to 500,000 people annually.

Conception and establishment of Hospital Management Committees (HMCs) and Primary Care Management Committees (PCMCs) was among the main key milestones of ISU.

The unit support spread across multiple departments and offices, including CM office. The unit has been formed under the chairmanship of the Finance Minister Taimur Khan Jhagra after consultations with Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mahmood Khan, Chief Secretary and Additional Chief Secretary of the province, the report added.