Patna, July 11: Evaluation of different government schemes is imperative for its proper implementation.

With this view, the planning and development department organised a three-day workshop to train officials of various departments to carry out evaluation of schemes and get the right feedback.

Organised by the directorate of evaluation in collaboration with Unicef, planning and development minister Narendra Narayan Yadav inaugurated the three-day event — Workshop on Evaluation Principles and Methods — today.

Citing the state’s plan size in the current fiscal which has shot up to Rs 24,000 crore from around Rs 3,000 crore in 2003-04, Yadav said: “This workshop would dwell on the issue whether these funds are being utilised in a proper manner and the reasons if it is not. The officials of the directorate of evaluation will be imparted training, which will help them get the right feedback so that corrective steps could be taken to streamline the schemes.”

“After the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments, the role of panchayati raj institutions has increased as most of the schemes are being run by the three-tier panchayat system. So, it is imperative to train the panchayati raj officials so that schemes are implemented correctly,” Yadav added.

However, evaluation does not mean pointing at mistakes.

Yadav said: “It is essential to evaluate the implementation of the different programmes and schemes so that corrective measures can be taken. Evaluation should not be considered as a fault-finding exercise but as a means for corrective action and decision making. Evaluation study reports can be used as supporting documents to influence decisions.”

The minister added: “Officials from other institutions have come here to impart training on how to carry out evaluation in all the 40 state departments.”

Planning Commission members and teachers from Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad, are taking part as resource persons at the workshop-cum-training programme, said the planning and development department’s principal secretary Vijoy Prakash. Senior officials from the directorate of evaluation and other government departments and representatives from civil society organisation, research institutions and universities in Bihar are also taking part in the workshop.

Prakash in his keynote address said: “Evaluation is indispensable in assessing whether governments and development partners are actually able to contribute to improve results. The basic idea is to build up evaluation teams for around 630 projects and schemes being run in the state.”