Four Actions to Integrate Performance Information with Budget Formulation
Submitted by rgordon on Mon, 04/28/2014 - 09:58
In this report, Dr. Whitley offers specific steps that can be taken by government leaders – without legislation -- to make this a reality instead of an exhortation. He says the goal is “having a budget process that is focused on making resource allocation decisions and a performance function that provides data on the results of alternatives when they are needed for decision making.” And to achieve this, “both communities must adapt their own processes and data products to the needs of the other.”
To do this, he offers a series of recommendations that: (1) engage agency leaders, (2) focus attention on conducting better analyses, (3) improve the budget formulation process, and (4) reform agency budget accounts and cost estimating approaches. For example, he encourages agency leaders to treat performance measurement as a key component of an agency’s internal analytic function, not just a collection and reporting function for external accountability.