4 Examination of public service agreements
44. The Government response to our report on the
DFID 2003 Departmental Report was received in January 2004.[23]
The Government accepted that DFID needed to improve its reporting
on its progress towards the PSA targets and its contribution towards
meeting the MDGs. We had made recommendations along these lines
in previous years too. So we were particularly pleased to see
that DFID's Departmental Report for 2004, as well as its Autumn
Performance Report, was organised in terms of DFID's PSA targets.
45. During the evidence session with the Permanent
Secretary and in follow-up written questions to DFID, we examined
progress against the targets contained in the Department's 2003-2004
Public Service Agreements. While the Department is on course to
meet several important targets, progress has slipped in some key
areas and is judged "too early to say" in others. Once
again, the Departmental Report contained, in our view, inadequate
information about how the department was addressing this underperformance.
We cited two cases of underperformance in the 16 key countries
in Africa: maternal mortality and under-five mortality rates.
The lack of information on the steps which DFID could take to
increase the likelihood of meeting targets makes it difficult
for us to assess whether an improvement is likely to be made.
46. DFID's PSAs continue to raise problems of attribution.
Many PSAs are affected by a wide range of factors that are not
within DFID's remit. This raises questions about the suitability
of some of DFID's targets. The problem is compounded by the lack
of reliable data on which to measure progress against some targets
and we noted a risk that poor data and an inability to measure
performance could invalidate some targets. To its credit, DFID
is well aware of the problem of poor data and is working with
international bodies and bilaterally to support the development
of statistical systems.
23 First Special Report of Session 2003-04, Government
Response, HC 231. Back
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