PDP provided assistance to the Prime Ministers Court in performing a benchmarking exercise evaluating priority processes of the following five ministries: Survey and Land Registration; Municipality and Urban Planning; Electricity and Water Services; Commerce and Industry; and Roads and Sewerage. This included responsibility for: 

• benchmarking for various priority services under each of the selected ministries 
• defining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and establishing service standards for various services provided within the selected ministries 
• comparison of the KPIs and service standards with established standards of similar government ministries and departments in Australia and the United Arab Emirates 
• commentary and comparison of the said processes indicating the environment in which the process/service operates.

The project encompassed Phase I of a comprehensive whole of government reform program aimed at major structural and process transformation of public management in Kuwait. In particular, the project assisted the Ministry of Finance to strengthen the contribution of budget preparation to the achievement of the government’s medium-term economic priorities and fiscal targets, and to the achievement of more efficient and effective expenditure programs.

The PDP team designed and led the functional review process covering budgeting and accounting operations at the Ministry of Finance, including preparation of methodology and diagnostic tools, training of working groups, and implementation of the functional and budget/expenditure analysis. A review of “as-is” processes (of the budgeting and accounting operations of the MoF) was undertaken, considering MoF's interaction with the Ministry of Planning, Civil Service Commission, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Public Works, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Kuwait University to facilitate an understanding of the various types of organisations and the difference in processes. Subsequently, “to-be” processes were designed, incorporating best practices, and a gap analysis between the “as-is” and “to-be” models was presented. Based on the agreed “to-be” processes, inputs were provided to the requirements definition for the budgeting and accounting functions for the proposed integrated public sector IT system. Detailed design of the roll-out and the implementation strategy was presented, together with related action plans, emphasising appropriate change management strategies including provision of staff training.

PDP was responsible for the detailed design and implementation of a Planning and Performance Budgeting Systems (PPBS) framework, and provision of associated staff training and familiarisation exercises. The team were tasked with:

• specification of standardised formats for PPBS budgets including ministry vision, mission statements and objectives, program structure, program objectives and performance measures
• high-level design of “to-be” PPBS workflows and a PPBS framework for the MOF and line ministries
• development of a budget planning process focusing on programs
• definition of PPBS reporting requirements including the development of templates for quarterly and annual reporting of performance indicators
• provision of recommendations for legislative and administrative changes to support PPBS including necessary changes in the legislative and regulatory framework to support the introduction of PPBS
• assessment of training and human resource development needs in the MOF and line ministries for successful rollout of the PPBS
• preparation of a capacity and training needs assessment
• preparation of a detailed and realistic implementation schedule following consultations with line agencies.

PDP worked with the Ministry of Finance to prepare performance budget statements (PBS) documents in 33 federal ministries and autonomous agencies. Each agency was required to prepare a budget presentation classifying expenditures according to programs for the 2002/2003 budget. The assignment involved seminars and presentations on performance budgeting to staff of the different agencies (in close collaboration with a PBS team in the Budget Office of the Ministry of Finance and Industry), reviewing draft program budget presentations and performance indicators prepared by each agency, and the preparation of design documents for PBS.