PwC Ltd's Executive Director, Amrit Pandurangi, answers frequently asked questions about the PACS Programme:

• How does managing the PACS Programme fit in with your organisation's overall objectives and framework?
  
  
• What is the setup you have in your organisation for managing the programme?
  
  
• What are the major challenges you have faced in managing this large programme spread over several states and involving scores of organisations?
  
  
• What do you think are the significant achievements recorded by the programme so far?
  
  
• What are the areas of concern?

How does managing the PACS Programme fit in with your organisation's overall objectives and framework?

PwC is renowned for its financial advisory services and financial audit practice globally. In this capacity, PwC advises clients on financial management in order to optimise stakeholder benefit within the applicable statutory framework. Optimisation of stakeholder benefit is achieved by advising/adopting best practices in financial management and minimising the risks.

The PACS Programme is a unique experiment in grant-making where DFID has handed over the management of such a large grant outside the purview of government bodies. The Development Alternatives-PricewaterhouseCoopers consortium together acts as management consultants (MC) to the PACS Programme on behalf of DFID and is responsible for the overall administration and management of the programme. The PACS Programme aims to harness the flexible and creative delivery mechanism of NGO interventions without losing sight of objective and efficient utilisation of funds. In this direction, the DA-PwC consortium lends MC the strengths of both the NGO and corporate worlds.

Therefore, we find PwC uniquely placed in this programme to provide its services for the smooth and efficient management of financial processes in the area of grant-making.

PricewaterhouseCoopers is well in control of the processes of laid-out systems and procedures to maintain transparency and accountability within the vast range of institutional arrangements possible within the PACS Programme

What is the setup you have in your organisation for managing the programme?

PwC has a dedicated team for the PACS Programme that is co-located with the DA team in the project office housed at DA's head office. The team members are:
Amrit Pandurangi - Programme Coordinator
Rajesh Aggarwal - Programme Manager
Sumeet Malhotra - Programme Executive
Amit Phull - Programme Executive
Vishal Gupta - Programme Executive
Soumitra Banerjee - Assistant Programme Executive
Dipendra Thapa - Project Accountant

The PACS Programme started in April 2001 and has completed almost five years. The first phase of the project, which lasted six months, focused on designing systems to manage the complex programme. An operating systems manual for projects, covering every aspect of the programme's functioning, was developed.

The second phase, or the implementation phase, which is currently underway, has the following key activities:

• Solicitation of project concepts from civil society organisations (CSOs).
• Desk evaluation of concept papers and CSOs.
• Development of project proposals for approved concepts.
• Project/CSO appraisal, both desk and field, and approval by the project selection committee.
• Managing the process of contracts/agreements/terms of reference; preparation and signing of MoUs with CSOs and service providers.
• Management of fund flow from DFID to MC and subsequent disbursement to selected CSOs.
• System maintenance including accounting and MIS generation.
• Financial reporting to DFID and the programme's national advisory board.
• Financial monitoring of projects under implementation

What are the major challenges you have faced in managing this large programme spread over several states and involving scores of organisations?

Given the magnitude of the project in terms of size and complexity, the key challenge is managing the scale and managing a complex set of activities towards successfully running the PACS Programme. The DFID review team has appropriately summed this up in its review as follows: "As management consultants to the PACS Programme, Development Alternatives (read including PwC team) is faced with a challenging assignment that requires them to stream and align ideas from many stakeholders into a meaningful train of events and outputs that translate into perceivable gains for the poor. The task defined for them requires that they rotate the hats of management controllers, project monitors, organisational evaluators, communicators, reviewers and counsellors with equal aplomb and efficiency. Add to this the responsibility for continuous programme improvement, quality control and promoting learning within the programme."

What do you think are the significant achievements recorded by the programme so far?

As stated earlier, the programme has two distinct phases. The key achievement in the first phase was the completion of the operation system manual. The operation system manual is a very comprehensive document detailing each and every operational procedure.

We are now in the implementation phase and a number of projects in all the PACS Programme states have been signed/prepared with the CSOs whose projects have been duly assessed by the MC and approved by the project selection committee. Till today we have signed about 126 agreements amounting to Rs 87 crore (£12 million). Disbursements to the tune of Rs 44 crore (£6 million) have already been done.

Despite the scale of operations, all the partner NGOs have been receiving prompt and high quality service from the PwC team.

It is also worth mentioning one of the other important aspects in this programme: the involvement of various stakeholders/sector experts other than civil society organisations. For example, through the PACS Programme communication strategy various well-known academicians, journalists, editors, organisations and bureaucrats are involved to make the programme a success and give it recognition at the national level.

What are the areas of concern?

In the PACS Programme significant expenses are being made towards building the capacities of CSO staff and grassroots beneficiaries. The programme can achieve a long-term impact only if this cadre base that is being created is sustained. Unfortunately, there is a very high turnover of staff in the CSOs due to a number of factors. Similarly, unless the grassroots initiatives are sustained on a long-term basis, they will fall short of the objectives.

Another key concern, from our experience, is the very scant regard of key NGO executives for systems and procedures including accounting systems. The focus is always on the programmatic elements; very little emphasis is laid on the procedural aspects. As a result, most NGOs are structurally quite weak.