The Obama Administration and PBB: Building on the Legacy of Federal

Performance-Informed Budgeting?

The administration of President Barack Obama, like those of his immediate predecessors, is focused on trying to improve the quality of, and use of, performance data. Th e federal government has been pursuing performance-informed budget reforms for more than 50 years. Most recently, the Bush administration reforms included the President’s Management Agenda and the Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART).The Obama administration reforms include: measuring the eff ects ofthe American Recovery and Reinvestment Act; reducing or eliminating poorly-performing programs; setting a limited number of short-term, high-priority performance goals; and funding detailed program evaluations. The administration is taking a more agency-driven approach than the Bush administration, but continues to fi nd it challenging to move beyond production of performance data to its use. Th ere should be opportunities to show how performance information can be used for decisionmaking,given the change in the political climate and the needs to reduce spending and the defi cit. Historically, there has been little appetite in the Congress for evidence-based decision making.The administration, however, can continue to demonstrate how federalagencies can use performance information to more effectively manage programs.

From Performance Budgeting to Performance Budget

Management: Theory and Practice

Abstract: This article examines the decades-long practices of performancebudgeting in different

countries and their associated challenges from a multilayered institutional framework. Based on theory and lessons learned, the article recommends an array of strategies to address institutional and organizational barriers. It also proposes to reconceptualize performance budgeting as a performance budget management system and suggests how multiyear budget planning, financial risk assessment, policy planning, the departmental budget cycle, the program budget cycle, stake holder engagement, regular spending reviews, and performance audits should be integrated more closely to address the long-term fiscal challenges faced by many governments and to respond to the public pressure on agencies to do more with less.

A Conceptual Model with Applications for Budgeting,

Human Resources Management, and Open Government

Abstract: The economic crisis provides some insights on the role of measurement systems. As shown by the ongoing discussion of credit rating agencies by political actors and in the news media, measurement is not a neutral device, but an active agent in societal processes. Comparative measurements of international public administration are as frail, technocratic, and overly aggregated as bond ratings, but nonetheless are increasingly used by journalists, aid organizations, foreign investors, and, indeed, rating agencies to hold governments accountable. Better measurement is needed in public administration performance. This article builds on study reports from the OECD’s Government at a Glance project to address the issue of how to measure public administration performance. The fields of budgeting, human resources management, and open government illustrate both the potential and the challenge of such measurements.

  The Obama Administration and PBB Building on the Legacy of Federal Performance‐Informed Budgeting.pdf

  Ho2018_PAR78(5)_FromPerformanceBudgetingToPerformanceBudgetManagement.pdf

  HOW TO MEASURE PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION PERFORMANCE A Conceptual Model with Applications for Budgeting, Human Resources Management, and Open Government.pdf