The Prime Minister?s Office (PMO) has questioned the necessity of having the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) while the Programme Evaluation Organisation (PEO), under the Planning Commission, carries out a host of similar functions. Given how former Planning Commission deputy chair Montek Singh Ahluwalia tasked the project evaluation offices, which report to the PEO, to work for the IEO, the PMO has written to the panel seeking an explanation as to how the two assessment bodies will avoid duplication of work.
Until the creation of the IEO, the PEO was the lone body tasked by the plan panel to carry out assessment of government schemes? performance, processes and impact. However, given how it is under the overall charge of the deputy chairperson of the Planning Commission, who is appointed by the prime minister, there remains a possibility of the PEO?s assessment being vulnerable to government?s influences, especially since the plan panel itself functions without any kind of Parliamentary oversight. The IEO, in its short existence so far, has proven itself to be independent?despite being attached to the Planning Commission, it recommended the latter?s closure/recasting, highlighting the concerns that the panel remained unaccountable while its influence had unduly grown beyond planning. So, while there might be a case for it being subsumed under the Planning Commission?so that it has better access to information crucial to the evaluation it undertakes?there is none for its scrapping.
