At the first post Cabinet press conference for this year, Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon yesterday reported that among the issues dealt with by Cabinet was its concern about the quality of output and outcome of expenditures in the various ministerial sectors.

He said this process which was started last year will be intensified in more meaningful ways during this year.

"Importantly in 2003 the emphasis on the monitoring, and the emphasis on the evaluation on value for money - accountability - these issues would be addressed in even more meaningful ways.

"I refer specifically to the creation in the Office of the President of a unit for the monitoring of expenditure under the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) and also the improvement in the provision of accountability of public expenditure," Luncheon said.

Expanding on what he meant by "even more meaningful ways," he added: "...but now that we have an established approach, an entire bureaucracy is being created to deal with monitoring and evaluation.

"Then it is not only what is being spent, which would be commented on, but the output and outcome would also be included in the analysis, and this is what takes accountability to a qualitatively new height. It is not now how much money was spent and how it was spent, but, indeed it becomes now, what was the outcome of the expenditure."

He added: "The implementation unit at the Office of the President is now being complemented by another one which will be dealing with monitoring and evaluation in almost all of the sectors and commitment to the collection of data on clearly identified measurement indicators, that would allow us to reflect on a higher level of accountability."

He observed that during the two days that Cabinet met there was a fairly comprehensive review of the ministerial sectors as well as identifying priorities for 2003.

The performance of the economy and the financial operations for 2002 were analysed and Cabinet advised that there should be continued proper macro-economic management and sound fiscal policies, he said.

"Over the past two days, January the 8th & 9th, Cabinet discussed a fairly comprehensive review of the sector performances and the priorities identified in those sectors listed for 2003. During the two-day session, the performance of the economy, Central Government financial operations occupied centre stage, this is as far as 2002 goes.

"Cabinet specifically was advised about the maintenance of the sound macro-economic management stability, the fiscal prudence that took place during 2002," Luncheon told reporters.

He noted too that Cabinet was advised on the delays in the rehabilitation programme for infrastructure.

"During 2002 also Cabinet was advised about delays in the rehabilitation of infrastructure, associated with problems of fund inflows," Luncheon said.