Governing for results

Abstract

Since the early 1990s almost all OECD Member countries have been working to improve the quality of their public expenditure by implementing a focus on results to their management and budgeting systems. These reforms have encompassed all levels of central government including the whole of government level, different policy sectors, entities delivering on public policies (agencies), units within those organisations and individual employees.

The approaches to actual implementation have been diverse and adapted to national capacities, cultures and priorities. Notwithstanding these differences, the similarity of the conceptual framework and thinking behind reforms has proven sufficient to make international comparison and learning fruitful.

Through the years, the results focus to budgeting and management has followed the broadening of the public sector modernisation agenda reflected by the introduction of governance. The move from outputs to outcomes, the discussions of the role of parliaments and Supreme Audit Offices, the whole-of-government perspective, the analysis of the interaction between different management and budgeting tools, the focus on transparency and accountability and the discussions of allocation all reflect this development.

This move is likely to continue in the years to come thus intermingling the management and governance agendas.