A new Deloitte report finds that governments do not have the financial data they need to make good decisions. Study author William Eggers at Governing Magazine argues such data is particularly important when governments face fiscal constraints.
If performance-based budgeting is to be more than an academic exercise, and actually be employed to help pare costs during tight budgetary times, there must be rewards for good performance and real consequences for poor performance. This, however, requires legislators and budget directors to distinguish between programs that work and those that do not, and then to shift the right resources to the right places. More than half of those surveyed indicate that their organizations do not thoroughly understand the relationship between the investments they make in programs and the outcomes those programs produce.
In other words, the very steps governments would take to put their financial information online are the same ones they need to better manage their operations.
