Government of Karnataka formulated an Evaluation Policy during the year 2000 vide No. IFS 42 EVF (1) 1999 Bangalore dated 17th November 2000. As per policy all schemes (PLAN) with more than Rs. 1 crore outlay were required to be evaluated at least once in 5 years by all the government departments, corporations, boards, local bodies and other publicly funded entities and 1% of the total outlay of a project/scheme, with an upper limit of Rs. 5 lakhs, is to be kept for evaluation purpose. It is mandatory for a scheme/project to continue beyond plan period to be justified by evaluation. Initially the Evaluation Policy was to be implemented by the Departmental Evaluation Committee (DEC) and State Evaluation Co-ordination Committee (SECC).

First of its kind in the country, Karnataka Evaluation Authority (KEA) was set up vide Government Order No. PD/8/EVN (2) dated: 11.07.2011 for the purpose. KEA is a society registered in September, 2011 under Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960 vide No. DRB-C/SOR/140/2011-12 dated19.09.2011. The State Government provides budget grants to facilitate the functioning of KEA. It is an ISO 9001:2015 certified body. KEA is member of 3ie - an international organisation. KEA provides technical guidance to all the Departments and Institutions an evaluation works taken by them. In addition KEA undertakes thematic/conceptual evaluations on key issues with its own resources and provides the feed back to the State Government.

The business of the KEA is seen by the following bodies:

     1. The General Body: Chaired by Chief Secretary to Government of Karnataka

     2. The Governing Body: Presided by ACS/PS – Planning Department

     3. Head of KEA: Chief Evaluation Officer

    4. Technical Committee: Chaired by ACS/PS – Planning Department for approval of TOR, Inception reports and Draft Evaluation reports

    5. Others - Empanelment committee , Tender Committees, Sampling Committee etc

All evaluations, irrespective of their nature, are entrusted to Independent External Evaluators. Process in brief is as below:

• TOR are prepared in consultation with the concerned department,.
• TOR is approved by TC and is followed by tender process
• Work of Evaluation studies is outsourced to Expert Consultant Organisations
• ECOs are selected through tendering process as per KTPP.
• Tenders are called under LCS and QCBS methods
• Selected ECO first submit Work plan/ Inception report to conduct study
• IR is Approved by TC and is followed by Draft Evaluation Report
• DER is Approved by TC
• DERs are assessed by Empaneled Independent assessor also
• Approved final evaluation reports are translated into Kannada
• Reports are sent to Concerned Department, ATR is requested
• All reports are Uploaded on Karnataka Evaluation Authority website
• All the works of KEA are placed before Governing body and General body

Future Plans of KEA includes

• Increasing Evaluation studies per year and improving their Quality
• Increasing Expert base - ECO-35, and Independent assessor-11.
• Emphasising on Action Taken reports on Evaluation studies from line departments
• Capacity building
• Developing Mobile - App based solution for evaluation studies of beneficiary oriented programmes and schemes for accuracy of data and effective analysis. This will also help in creating future repository of data base on secured server. Data can be retrieved any time as and when required to avoid duplication of survey work. 
• To create an online platform for streamlining the process of evaluation and obtaining ATRfrom the line Departments.
• Expending wings beyond the State of Karnataka.