Definitions of Processes - COPEGOL - Local Government Competition for Excellence

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Definitions of Planning, Budgeting, Service Delivery, Procurement, Audit and Monitoring-Evaluation

COPEGOL focuses on key local decision making processes of identifying and prioritizing needs and expectations of the population, allocating and mobilizing the necessary resources, delivering services and procuring associated needs, auditing physical and financial activities, and monitoring and evaluating the progress and results.

Planning refers to the process through which strategic direction is determined, and associated programs, investments, and services are identified and prioritized to move forward in this direction.

Budgeting process allocates necessary resources (capital and labour) among those programs and projects. It is a financial commitment for a specified period of time (fiscal year) that matches available and expected revenues and expenditures for the provision of planned programs, investments, and services. The process includes preparing, reviewing, presenting, and adopting the budget. It involves aspects such as budget formulation, budget execution, tax/revenue and fiscal policy. In this sense, COPEGOL includes revenue mobilization in its definition of budget process as mobilizing revenues is key to determine the budget commitment of the local government to deliver the planned services.

Service delivery includes various kinds of activities. Some involve collective goods produced by local government such as water provision, wastewater disposal and creating and maintaining roads. In the rural areas, those kinds of services include agriculture related activities. Other services involve individual and social benefits such as education, health, and social welfare. Finally, there are those services that are related to providing public safety and order.

Procurement refers to the process of acquiring goods, works and services. The process involves awarding government contracts to individual and/or organizational suppliers.

Auditing refers only to internal audit (in-house and own measures of audit). Internal audit includes physical inspection (i.e. verifying progress on physical activities such as construction) in addition to financial auditing.

Monitoring refers to the collection of information on the progress towards the achievement of objectives, outcomes and impacts of projects and programmes. Evaluation is the assessment of the collected information on projects and programmes. It involves evaluating the design, implementation, and results. The process allows determining the relevance and fulfillment of objectives, efficiency, effectiveness, impact and sustainability. The evaluation may be undertaken internally, externally, or as a joint internal/external partnership.