Local budgeting and the process of providing an account from a comparative perspective: a comparison of progress made Online publication date: Thu, 13-May-2010
by Henk Klaassen
International Journal of Public Sector Performance Management (IJPSPM), Vol. 1, No. 4, 2010
Abstract: The increasing amount of pressure being put on governments, including at the local and regional levels, to spend within the means available to them more effectively and efficiently, has elevated the role of output indicators in budgeting, financial and performance processes. A 2006 study of 17 North-Western European municipalities, set up within the Department of Public Administration at the Erasmus University Rotterdam has shown that only very modest progress has so far been made in the effective use of output indicators. The road to greater output orientation is one of perseverance. The challenges are many: information overload, cost allocation issues, unclear means-end relationships, the problem of joint products, etc. Nevertheless further investments to affect a shift from input to process, from process to performance or even from performance to outcome may be rewarding. After all, there are examples of this: York and Bath in Great Britain.
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