Performance Monitoring Best Practice


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Returns may be measured in a number of ways, in compliance with reporting best practices.

One may, for example, measure the payback period, that is to say the number of years required for the expenditure associated with a project to be recouped; or one might measure the book rate of return, this being the average annual profit made by an investment as a proportion of the original outlay.

Each of these simple techniques exhibits serious deficiencies however. For example, payback does not consider the total profit which may be earned; neither method accounts for the time value of money or for situations in which more than one investment is made.

Another common measure of performance is the internal rate of return (”IRR“).

Industry-wide private equity performance studies throughout the world use the IRR, to the extent that it has become the undisputed best practice standard for performance monitoring in private equuity.

The IRR is that rate of discount which equates the present value of the cash outflows associated with an investment with the sum of the present value of the cash inflows accruing from it and the present value of the valuation of the unrealized investment. Not only does this measure take the time value of money into account, as well as the ability to measure the returns on groups of investments, but it also expresses the return as a simple percentage.

Other frequently used best practice measures of performance are the multiples to investors of:

• distributions to paid-in capital;

• residual value to paid-in capital;

• total value to paid-in capital.

Best Practices for Public Tenders


Procuring public tenders is not as easy as it may seem. There are essential best practices that must be implemented to succeed. Any minor oversight can lead to losing the bid. This is why there are procurement guidelines that must be followed to ensure success. These guideline comprises of the following steps:

Initiation Process: It is logical to say that a project becomes official when specific requirements are fulfilled. There has to be funding to support execution of the project. Additionally, there must be well defined goals and objectives. Most importantly, every project has unique features, but share common features. These features govern the potential for the success of the business.

  • Defined Scope to be achieved within the defined time
  • Agreed deadline for outcomes
  • Availability of resources and the anticipated outcomes must be defined.
  • There must be a project owner responsible for all costs related to the project. This includes managing investments, time management and safety liability.
  • Experienced team working on the project to match the complexity of the project.

Managing time, quality and budget of the project are the three most important best practices that are important for a standard public tender.

Procurement Strategy: Procurement means the act of acquiring resources/supplies, services and the work. Work can be achieved from a public body that can place contracts for large projects. The process involves utilizing public money to accomplish a job for the interest of the public. Procurement begins with the need for a job, and ends with completion of the contract.

Procurement strategy involves best practices for making important decision. It also involves the effect of associated events/processes to acquire goods, services and the other supporting aspects for the business. These decisions must be made before the tender is placed, as is best described as the pre-tendering procurement strategy. Therefore, depending on the project and nature of the job, the procurement strategy must comprise of the following best practices:

  • Define the list of things to be purchased
  • Identify the source of deliverables
  • Determine an appropriate and accurate procurement method
  • Draft terms and conditions of the contract in the tender document
  • Evaluate the bids that must be organized
  • Details must be presented in standard format in compliance with audit-proof  ways

Evaluation and Contract Award: This best practice requires verifying the eligibility of the applicant for the tender. This also required fulfillment of the criteria needed for the evaluation, according to the Public Procurement Directorate. The tender is awarded after the applicable legislations have been provided. These must be in accordance to the framework required in order to acquire the tender. The contracting authority can decide to cancel or suspend the announcement of the tender procedure. This happens if requirements have not been satisfactorily fulfilled.

Negotiation Process: The contracting authorities must cooperate with economic operators. This best practice ensures that officials are familiar with national and community legislatures. Thereby, it makes specialized technical, financial and legal assistance available.

Contract Implementation: After all these best practices have been successful, the public tender is issued and work begins.

Best practices in public tender improve chances of success for contractors.

Best Practice in Monitoring Public Expenses


Best practices in monitoring public expenses are important because they help the government allocate public resources. Therefore, tracking public expenses helps to identify and solve problems encountered in the process of transfer and delivery of public services. Moreover, this best practice helps detect corruption in the system.

Public expenses are centered towards those products or service that the government provides for its citizens. These include education, healthcare, parks and other utilities.

Tracking public expenditure involves validating financial accounts. This is important in order to monitor qualitative research and utilization of funds. These include processes like interviews of people using public services. Asking questions about the users’ experiences and assessing the quality, cost and accessibility is a recommended best practice. Moreover, expenditure tracking must also be verified at sub-national levels. These apply at the local and district levels.

Sometimes, utilization of funds is trailed at the highest stratum of the government, through the various layers of financial beneficiaries. For example, one can begin from the State Treasury to final beneficiaries, and the final consumer of any public service. This requires best practices in coordination and resource allocation. This could extend from national level to grass-root levels.

Recently, the Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) concept was adopted by the World Bank. This was aimed at engaging researchers at a national and grass-root level. For accuracy, both technical reviews and interviews were uses to trace fund flow from the source to the destination.

How to Implement Public Expenditure Tracking

  1. Scope and Purpose: The purpose may be to identify the source of corruption, non-performance or inefficiency in the enterprise. This could be in a specific department, faculty or in any government service. Determining the scope and purpose of public expenditure tracking is important. That is because it affects the stages, people and resources involved in the whole process.

Depending on the scope of monitoring, the entire sector (like health for pregnant women) or geographic area (like a district) or a public service provider (like a hospital) can be targeted. Sector wide tracking of public expenses will require higher resources and expertise.

  1. Partners and Stakeholders: There will be need to gather partners and stakeholders to pool funds. It will be important to identify credible and capable partners willing to derive assistance for best practices involves in tracking public expenses. Resources will be needed to target audiences; partners and stakeholders will help fund this.
  2. Plan the Survey: After determining the scope of the project the next best practice will be to plan the stages according to the resources available.
  3. Data Collection and Analysis: Data collected during the survey must be analyzed and evaluated. For best practices hiring expert or trained researchers is recommended. Assessing causes for dysfunctional practices or inefficiencies at every stage. Factors contributing to corruption must also be evaluated. This will require best practices like time management, budget control, human resource constraints, and administrative processes.

In order to satisfy social wants of the general public, the government must implement the best practice of monitoring public expenses.

In this section we will discuss:


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