Which Form of Performance Budgeting Do Countries Actually Implement?
A number of countries around the world, including many developing countries, are attempting to improve the performance of their government sectors, and performance budgeting is often seen as an important aspect of these efforts. This is a very worthwhile objective, but one that often is difficult to achieve. One key question is: are countries primarily (and successfully) pursuing modern forms of performance budgeting, or are the reforms more similar to the type of program budgeting that was introduced in the 1960s? The results are obviously mixed. However, when reviewing performance reform efforts in different countries, the following weaknesses are quite common: – Many reform efforts are quite mechanical and ritualistic. There is little attention given to the quality of budget programs and indicators. – Program and indicator definitions tend to focus on inputs and activities, and to some extent outputs. In many countries there are few examples of well-defined programs with clear outco
